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Previous Volume 347:2046-2056 December 19, 2002 Number 25 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Herbal medicine is an increasingly common form of alternative therapy in the United States. A 1997 survey estimated that 12.1 percent of adults in the United States had used an herbal medicine in the previous 12 months (as compared with 2.5 percent in 1990), resulting in out-of-pocket payments of $5.1 billion.¹ Among those who had used herbal medicine, 15.1 percent had seen an alternative-medicine practitioner, with a total of 10.5 million office visits, 19.8 percent of which had been completely or partially covered by insurance.

Regulation

Most herbal products in the United States are considered dietary supplements and thus are not . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Quality

Safety

Efficacy

Studies of Individual Herbs

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)

Hawthorn (Crataegus Species)

Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens)

St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

Recommendations

Source Information

From the Scientific Institute Dutch Pharmacists, The Hague; and the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, University Medical Center St. Radboud, Nijmegen — both in the Netherlands.

Address reprint requests to Dr. De Smet at Scientific Institute Dutch Pharmacists, Alexanderstr. 11, 2514 JL The Hague, the Netherlands, or at pdesmet@winap.nl.

Related Letters:

Herbal Medicine
Lipman M. M., McGuffin M., Wollschlaeger B. A., Goadsby P. J., Marcus D. M., Grollman A. P., De Smet P. A.G.M.
Extract | Full Text | PDF  
N Engl J Med 2003; 348:1498-1501, Apr 10, 2003. Correspondence

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