Abstract
BACKGROUND: There is an increasing use of herbal products and herbal medicines globally with the belief that herbal medicines are always ‘safe’ and carry no risk because they are from natural sources. However, there are concerns regarding medicinal plants and their ability to produce adverse effects. The growing herbal medicine usage has increased the need to monitor the safety of herbal medicines. Thus, the recommended approach by the World Health Organization (WHO) is to include herbal medicines in existing national pharmacovigilance systems. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the knowledge of pharmacovigilance of herbal medicines amongst herbal medicine practitioners. METHODS: The study was carried out in Lagos West Senatorial District of Lagos State, Nigeria. Three categories of practitioners (378 respondents) were engaged and they include Traditional Herbal Sellers, Natural Health Practitioners and Pharmacists. RESULTS: The results showed that herbal medicines are commonly recommended for malaria, typhoid, diabetes and fever. 281 (74.3%) of the respondents claimed that herbal medicines have no adverse effects and only 91 (24.1%) of the respondents said there were some adverse effects reported by the users. Adverse effects reported include nausea, diarrhoea and weight loss. Amongst those that received reports of adverse effects, only 19 (20.9%) documented these reported adverse effects; none of these documentations were forwarded to the regulatory bodies or national pharmacovigilance centre in Nigeria. CONCLUSIONS: These results showed inadequate adverse effects monitoring (Pharmacovigilance) amongst the practitioners and underscore the necessity to educate and enlighten herbal medicine practitioners on the need for pharmacovigilance activity of herbal products.