By David Williamson
UNC-CH News Services
CHAPEL HILL -- Are medicinal herbs -- now extremely popular in the United States and abroad but only poorly regulated -- safe? Do they really work? How much should a person take in hope of producing the desired effect? Those are the chief questions top researchers will try to answer March 2-3 as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hosts the first international scientific conference on "The Efficacy and Safety of Medicinal Herbs."
Speakers from Canada, England, Germany and the United States will discuss what's been confirmed about eight of the world's most widely used herbs at the university's Friday Center, according to conference co-chair Dr. Lenore Arab. Those herbs are garlic, ginseng, ginko biloba, comfrey, saw palmetto, feverfew, echinacea and St. John's wort.
"It's essential that health professionals know what we know about these products and what's still speculation so that they can give informed advice," said Arab, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the UNC-CH schools of medicine and public health. "Right now, the public has stopped asking, and even if they were, most health professionals do not feel that they are in a position to give advice.
"As a result, the train is running wild down the track. People are self-medicating without any guidance. They might be taking extremely high, possibly dangerous, doses because they think more is better, or they may be getting so little that they're simply wasting their money."
As an example, she cited comfrey, which can cause liver damage and even liver failure. Banned in Canada and Europe, the herb is still widely available in U.S. health food stores.
Some 400 scientists, nutritionists and others are expected to attend the conference, Arab said.
Dr. Varro Tyler, professor and dean emeritus of pharmacy at Purdue University, will give the keynote address, "Herbal Medicine: From the Past to the Future," at 8:15 a.m. March 2. Other participants will include Drs. K.H. Lee, director of the Natural Products Laboratory at the UNC-CH School of Pharmacy; John B. Longenecker, director of the UNC Institution of Nutrition; and H. B. "Skip" Matthews of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Benefits and risks of medicinal herbs in elderly populations, quality assurance and various aspects of conducting meaningful research on herbal effects will be among topics discussed.
"To our knowledge there's never been a conference that summarizes data on the effectiveness of these products in humans," Arab said. "For that reason, we are very much excited about pulling the most up-to-date human information together and sharing the results later in a book."
The conference is being sponsored by the UNC Institute of Nutrition, the UNC-CH School of Medicine, the Sarah W. Stedman Center for Nutritional Studies at Duke University Medical Center and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' National Toxicology Program.
Cooperating organizations are the American Society for Nutritional Sciences, the National Institute on Aging, the nutrition and epidemiology departments at the UNC-CH School of Public Health, the East Carolina University School of Medicine and CABI Publishing in Wallingford, U.K.
Registration is $175 before Feb. 1 and $225 afterwards. Student fees are $75 before and $125 after that date.
Call 919-966-4032 for information about registering.
Note: Reporters are invited to cover the conference, which will include a news briefing to summarize information about the herbs. Arab can be reached at 919- 966-7450 or via e-mail at LenoreA@unc.edu.