The use of herbal medicines is one of the oldest health practices, typically involving plants, fungi, their metabolites, and minerals with the traditions passed on orally or in written records. Dietary and complementary/alternative medicine has become an important element in healthcare. In many regions of East Asia, these approaches are integrated into formal medical treatments. In the United States, surveys indicate that more than 50% of adults use herbal medicines.
Historically, herbal medicines have often not been classified as "medicines/drugs" but as "foods," leading to a general perception of them as harmless. Studies show that patients often do not inform their doctors about their use of herbal medicines, which may result in potential drug interactions and adverse events. This is concerning as improper use of herbal medicines is associated with risks such as liver injury and cardiovascular diseases. Due to their complex composition and multi-target properties, various herbal medicines can cause multiple adverse reactions. Drug-induced liver injury is a recognized clinical problem, and herb-induced liver injury has received increasing attention. Studies indicate that the use of drugs and herbal medicines accounts for a significant proportion of acute liver failure cases.
Although improper use of herbal medicines can lead to various health problems, the underlying mechanisms are often not fully understood. With technological advances, the application of multi-omics (including genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, etc.) and the use of artificial intelligence present new opportunities for understanding such risks of herbal medicines. These technologies aid in understanding the complex nature of herbal medicines and their biological effects. We encourage the submission of different types of contributions including original research, reviews, clinical trials, and detailed case reports. We are particularly encouraging contributions that utilize advanced technologies in this field, such as multi-omics research, artificial intelligence-assisted technologies, clinical big data analysis, and reports on rare cases. All studies must be driven by empirical data and purely in silico studies are outside of the journal’s scope. These studies should focus on the following areas:
• Pharmacological studies assessing the treatment of drug-induced liver injury caused by herbal medicines.
• Novel research approaches and methods for assessing herb-drug interactions
• Cardiovascular risks caused by herbal medicines, including arrhythmias, heart failure, atherosclerosis, and vascular inflammation.
• Neurological damage caused by herbal medicines, including behavioral abnormalities.
• Respiratory injuries caused by herbal medicines, such as pulmonary fibrosis.
• Mechanisms of drug interactions caused by herbal medicines and developments of evidence-based applications of modified treatments in clinical practice, particularly in the elderly and children.
Overall, by leveraging advanced methods and pharmacological strategies, we aim to deepen our understanding of the safety and clinical application of herbal medicines.
Please note:
1) Please self-assess your MS using the ConPhyMP tool (https://ga-online.org/best-practice/), and follow the standards established in the ConPhyMP statement Front. Pharmacol. 13:953205. All the manuscripts need to fully comply with the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here). Importantly, please ascertain that the ethnopharmacological context is clearly described (pillar 3d) and that the material investigated is characterized in detail (
pillars 2 a and b).
2) Clinical trial articles will be accepted for review only if they are randomized, double-blinded, and placebo controlled. Statistical power analysis or a justification of the sample size is mandatory as is a detailed chemical characterization of the study medication (see the ConPhyMP statement).
3) In silico studies like network analyses or docking studies are generally not accepted unless they are combined with detailed in vitro or in vivo analysis of the material (extract) under investigation.