The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) has added artichoke and expanded several entries in its online Botanical Safety Handbook to include the latest herb safety information and research.

AHPA’s Botanical Safety Handbook 2nd ed. is an essential tool for anyone who manufactures, recommends, or uses herbal products, the organization said. It provides safety information on over 500 species of herbs, derived from data compiled from clinical trials, pharmacological and toxicological studies, medical case reports, and historical texts. All entries were reviewed by an Expert Advisory Council that includes some of the most renowned herbal and integrative medicine experts in the United States.

Notable updates include:

• Cynara spp. (artichoke)—This new entry describes several reported human clinical trials and case reports as well as pharmacology and genotoxicity information. It is placed in Safety Class 1 and Interaction Class A.  
• Aloe spp.—New data added for drug and supplement interactions, adverse events, pharmacological studies, and toxicity studies.
• Garcinia cambogia—New data added for drug and supplement interactions, adverse events, case reports, and pharmacological studies.
• Aloe vera (aloe vera) gel—Updated to cite recent scientific articles about absorption of vitamins C and E in human studies and differences between the decolorized and nondecolorized whole leaf extracts as well as glucose regulation and animal studies in pregnancy and lactation.
• Anemopsis californica (yerba mansa)—Revised to include recent in vitro studies on aqueous and ethyl acetate extracts’ growth inhibitory and influenced migratory capacity effects on four human cancer cell lines.
• Amomum tsao-ko (tsao-ko amomum)—Updated to include recent research on methanol extract activity in both animal and in vitro studies.

In addition, minor updates have been completed to the entries for: 

• Aralia californica (California spikenard)
• Betula lenta (sweet birch)

Subscribers to the online Botanical Safety Handbook can review short descriptions of updated entries in the “Revisions” panel on the online version homepage when they log in.

AHPA is also preparing to post new botanical entries and additional updates to existing entries in the near future. Subscribers will be notified of these updates when they become available.

The online Botanical Safety Handbook is kept up-to-date through ongoing review of existing entries and the addition of new entries to provide the latest safety information before it can be included in future print editions of the handbook.

The handbook is available as an online, searchable database or in print. 

Preview the online handbook:

• European pennyroyal
• Magnolia
• Holy basil
• Fennel
• St. John’s wort