The evaluation of the awareness of pharmacists on theinteraction between widely used herbal products and drugs

The use of herbal medicines and nutritional supplements has been increased dramatically in many parts of the world. Since many herbal products has been sold over the internet. It is difficult to evaluate the extent of the use of them by consumers and patients in an uncontrolled market. Therefore, many countries have started to apply registration schemes for traditional medicines. On the other hand, the incidence of interaction between herbal medicines with conventional drugs, which is a very important issue that affects the success of therapy, is not still fully known. The patients often rely on friends and family for advice about herbal medicines. Generally, they do not report their usage of herbal medicines to their healthcare physicians and pharmacists. Many of the patients and health care professionals including pharmacists are still in lack of information about herbal product drug interactions. The lack of information related to interactions may be due to under-reporting or unrecognized interactions since the patients consider herbal medicines safe, even if taken with a prescription drug. Ginkgo biloba, Panax ginseng, Hypericum perforatum, Aloe vera and Allium sativum are the widely used herbal medicines. In this study it was aimed to evaluate the awareness of pharmacists on the interactions of this commonly used herbal medicines with drugs. In the study using a comprehensive questionnaire, the knowledge of pharmacists on the area of usage of these herbal medicines, their adverse effects and the possible interactions between drugs were evaluated. It was observed that more of than half of the pharmacists do not have the sufficient information about the interactions between herbal medicine and drugs. Keywords: Herb, herbal medicines, herb-drug interactions, awareness of pharmacists, alternative therapy, Ginkgo biloba, Panax ginseng, Hypericum perforatum, Aloe vera, Allium sativum.