Could the official registration of herbal medicines be seen as medical approval? That’s the concern after the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) registered its first: an arnica gel for aches and pains last week.
For a herbal medicine to be allowed on the register, its maker must show that it is safe and manufactured to a sufficiently high standard. The maker must also provide proof, not of efficacy, but that the substance has been used in traditional medicine for many years.
The MHRA argues that without this new system herbal products would be completely unregulated, but others…
