Herbs and Supplements

Recent law in the Europe requires companies marketing herbs and supplements to prove that what they are claiming for these products is the truth and is backed up by scientific evidence (regulation of these products varies across other parts of the world). This means that these products must conform to similar regulations applied to conventional drugs (i.e. the sort prescribed by your doctor) — they must be high quality, consistent and safe. Unfortunately, many unregulated products from outside of the EU are still available to purchase using the internet!

Images shows 2 hands. One is holding a glass of water and the other is reaching for a gelatine capsule from a pill box.

The UK NHS offers the following advice on the purchase and use of these products and we strongly suggest you read this before proceeding with any purchases

NOTE that herbal medication can have severe side effects and will interact with other medication just like any other prescription drug — check this listing before you proceed (NOTE this is NOT a full & comprehensive listing).

There is also a listing of adverse effects and drug:drug interactions on Wikipedia here (NOTE again, this is NOT a full and comprehensive listing).

EU Medicines regulatory authorities collect reports of adverse events from doctors and patients as part of their Yellow Card Scheme (see link below). You can browse the reports here.

If you experience an adverse effect from a herbal medication you should report it here, using the Yellow Card Scheme, to help advise others about what you have experienced.

This page was written in 2017 and reviewed in 2023. There are a huge range of herbs and supplements available without prescription in the EU, USA and throughout the world. We strongly recommend that you read all of the above sources and research the latest peer-reviewed information available about any herbs or supplements that you are considering purchasing.

This graphical representation provides useful information on which herbs & supplements are of any proven use for a given purpose, condition or illness. It provides a representation of which supplements & herbs have had reliable scientific research carried out to provide evidence that they work for the purpose intended.

The higher up a bubble is, the stronger the scientific is to support its use FOR THE PURPOSE MENTIONED IN THE BUBBLE. There may be more than one bubble per supplement if a supplement is used for more than one purpose.

Bubbles placed above the ‘Worth it’ line are thought to contain supplements that are strongly indicated to be useful for the purpose mentioned.

Roll your pointer over the bubble to activate it!

This information is provided to us by the group who run the website at informationisbeautiful.net and we believe it is a fair representation of the literature available on May 2017. Any papers published since that date will not be included. The Aspergillus Website is not responsible for the information provided by this company.