Bibliography on Herb-Drug and Food-Drug Interactions
Kathrin Hohl and Wilhelm Gaus
Department of Biometry and Medical Documentation,
Table of Contents
Structure of article identification
Provided files: Main File,
Index of Investigated Herbs and Foods, Index of Investigated Chemically Defined Drugs,
Index of Authors
Print or download files as PDF: Main File
(PDF), Index of Investigated Herbs and Foods
(PDF), Index of Investigated Chemically
Defined Drugs (PDF),
Objective
The objective of this bibliography was to consolidate the clinical
aspects of interactions between herbal remedies and foods on one hand side and
chemically defined drugs on the other side. Literature was retrieved by
extended searches in a variety of electronic databases and hand-searched
references in articles. Further, we received articles from the German drug
authority BfArM and members of the BfArM’s Commision E responsible
for phytotherapy. The search was constrained to
publications between January 1989 and June 2004.
Coverage of bibliography
Overall, 175 articles were included in the bibliography. They deal with 55
different herbs and foods and 102 different chemically defined drugs.
Components of the bibliography
The bibliography consists of a main
file, an index of investigated herbs and foods, an index of investigated
chemically defined drugs and an index of authors. In the main file each article
is classified under the aspects (i) specific herb or
food, (ii) type of study, (iii) chemically defined drug(s), (iv) investigated
subjects and sample size, (v) main clinical results and (vi) some comments.
Finally, full bibliographical reference is given. Unfortunately, we were not
allowed to include the abstracts of the referenced articles due to copyright protection.
Available information
The main file provides full
information. It is sorted by the preferred term of herbs and foods. Overviews
and personal opinions are exceptions, since mostly they cover several remedies.
Overviews are at the very beginning and personal opinions are at the very end
of the main file. Within overviews and within personal opinions the sequence is
sorted chronologically by year of publication and within a year by name of
first author. Within a certain herb or within a certain food the articles are
sorted by type of study in the following order: randomized controlled trials,
non randomized studies, case reports, animal experiments, and in vitro experiments. Within one type of
study the articles are sorted by year of publication and within a year by name
of first author.
Classification of study types
The following abbreviations for the
different study types are used as part of the article identification:
R = Randomized controlled trial
N = Non randomized study
C = Case report
A = Animal experiment
V = in Vitro experiment
Remedies (herbs and foods)
As mentioned above, the main file is
sorted by the preferred term, which is mostly the English, not the Latin name
of the remedy. The index of investigated herbs and foods includes the preferred
terms as well as non-preferred terms. Further, it specifies for preferred terms
a unique label consisting of 3 letters. The label is used as an abbreviation of
the remedy in the main file and is part of the article identification.
Structure of article identification
Article identifications consist predominantly
of 3 letters (the label of the herb or food supplement), a period, another
letter indicating the type of study and a 2 digit sequential number with low
numbers representing most recent publications.
Example:
The two exceptions of the structure
of article identifications are those for overviews and personal opinions.
They consist of 2 letters (OV or
Examples:
Chemically defined drugs
The index of investigated chemically
defined drugs lists all chemically defined drugs involved in interactions and
the corresponding article identifications. The drugs are sorted in therapeutic
groups according to the German drug register called “Rote Liste”.
The two exceptions of this index: alcohol and caffeine are listed at the
beginning.
The index of authors lists all first
and co-authors and the corresponding article identification(s). Bold names are
first authors, others are co-authors. Similarly, bold article identifications
represent articles with the author being first author, others represent
articles, where the author was a co-author.
1. Search for articles regarding a specific
herb or food involved in chemically defined drug interaction, knowing
the preferred term (mostly English name) of the remedy:
You can find those
articles in the main file searching for the preferred term (skipping the
overviews at the very beginning). After the preferred term all articles
primarily regarding this remedy are listed. At the end of the paragraph article
identifications of overviews, articles primarily concerning another remedy and
personal opinions are listed, which also discuss interactions of this remedy
with chemically defined drugs.
2. Search for articles regarding a specific
herb or food involved in chemically defined drug interaction, not
knowing the preferred term (mostly English name) of the remedy:
You first have to search
for this term in the index of investigated herbs and foods, because the main
file is sorted by the preferred term of the remedy. In the index of investigated
herbs and foods bold names represent preferred terms. Then you can access this
remedy in the main file analogous to example 1.
3. Search for articles regarding a specific
chemically defined drug involved in an interaction:
First you search in the index
of investigated chemically defined drugs for the therapeutic group of the drug
and then the drug itself. There, you get the article identifications of the
articles which investigated this drug in the context of interactions with a herb or food. Detailed information about these articles are available in the main file.
4. Search for articles of a specific
author:
The index of authors
states next to the author’s name all article identifications of articles where
the author was first or co-author, depending on whether the article
identification is bold or not. Information about these articles and the full
bibliographical reference can be found in the main file.