Norman Ferrie, 64, died within weeks of starting a line of the popular over-the-counter remedy Glucosamine to tackle pain in his arthritic joints. A liver expert told a fatal accident query that it was one of three similar box at the same time in Tayside.

Ninewells Hospital consultant gastroenterologist Dr John Dillon, 44, said the public should be warned about the plausible danger of herbal remedies. He said there was a public insight that the cure were safe - despite them not undergoing strict clinical testing like prescribed medication. Dr Dillon told the inquiry at Perth Sheriff Court:

We were confident the liver had been normal and that something had attacked it. It was an illness of weeks' duration. He had been taking Glucosamine to help with bitterness and arthritis in his joints. The dating of his ailment was within a very small timeframe of starting to take that.

We had two other cases where the patient became ill after fascinating this. We were becoming suspicious of Glucosamine causing a reaction and causing liver failure." Dr Dillon added: He had stopped taking the Glucosamine by the time we proverb him. Our assist to him was not to restart taking it."

Engineer Norman, from Invergowrie, Angus, started taking the Glucosamine tablets in April or May 2004 and became extremely ill by mid-June.

He was admitted to Ninewells Hospital, in Dundee, on June 30, on the other hand suffered liver failure and died in Edinburgh Royal Sickbay on The middle of summer 3, 2004. Dr Dillon said: There was a strong temporal relationship between him starting to take the Glucosamine and the onset of his illness.

He didn't respond to the therapy they used to treat the infection. The infection became so harsh that it led to his ultimate demise. We have an association between Glucosamine and this chance and that is clearly very worrying. I cannot prove it is causal because there include not been enough carton to explore it more widely.

But people need to be aware of the fact there may be an firm between this and liver failure. We can't give a numerical risk.

My advice would be that whether a patient became aware of a enigma after taking Glucosamine then they should stop taking it immediately."

Dr Dillon said it was possible the case had been a "statistical fluke" on the contrary he hoped to publish a weekly on the subject to raise the issue worldwide. He added: Can I make good definitely that it was the Glucosamine that caused Mr Ferrie's illness?

Not 100 per cent, but we are suspicious of it." Dr Dillon said unlike most other homeopathic remedies, Glucosamine had been shown to work in countering arthritic pain. However he called for the narcotic and other herbal remedies to be regulated and tested. He said:

Glucosamine is a complex compound derived from crab shells, lobster projectile and shrimp shells. It is what makes the crab shell stiff. It is a drug which has a potential benefit in reducing joint pain, but it is still a controversial area." Earlier, Norman's sister Elaine, 59, told the inquiry: It like incredible that a very strong and trim man can die so quickly and the only unusual thing was that he had taken Glucosamine.

We feeling the popular want to be aware that there are possible risks to taking Glucosamine or other such herbal remedies.

There should be caveat on the packets like there are on prescription medicines. No one should have to go through that again. He was never ill. He was a strong, healthy human race who never needed to go to the doctor." The inquiry will continue coming month. THE FACTS Glucosamine is a chemical compose which can occur naturally in the body.

It is involved in the perpetuation of connective tissue such as the cartilage.

From http://dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/03/04/homeo~

The herb can be chewed or smoked as a seam or in water pipes. Users can experience intense but short-lived hallucinations. The herb is legal in California, notwithstanding that legislators are considering restrictions.

Epithet accommodate Sally-D, Magic Mint and Diviner's Sage. Salvia divinorum is not among the multiplicity of common garden flower admitted as Salvia. Union-Tribune A packet of Salvia divinorum shrub in a contour that can be smoked.

It is to hand at "head shops" in the San Diego area. The teen in the YouTube video sucks in air through a pipe. Within moments, his arms exit flailing. He flops out of a stool and tremble on the floor, chanting, "Oh man.

Oh man! This is weird." The video is only of hundreds on the aim that give a vivid glimpse of an emerging - and still legal - hallucinogen from Mexico that can stone a user's mind with the gift of LSD.

The drug, known as Salvia divinorum, is gaining buzz on thoroughfare and institution campuses across the country, and it is setting off distress-signal among edict enforcement and constitution officials.

Eight states have classified it as a controlled substance, and many others are considering regulating its use, including California. It's coming on our radar shade now, and we want to know what we may be up against," San Diego Police Officer Jim Johnson said yesterday.

Although authorities say the narcotic hit the Common Shape in the 1980s or ahead of time 1990s, it didn't become universally available until five or six years ago. It advance in the form of fresh or dried leaves, whole plants, seeds or sometimes as an extract.

It's in general smoked but can also be chewed or taken as a concentrate, and it's easy to find on the Internet and in San Diego smoke shops and herbal stores for $15 to $50 a dose, depending on its potency.

The drug hits the system fast, usually within a instant or so, and causes a grand that can send purchaser into petrifying mind-altering trips or dreamlike conditions for a few minutes to two hours. Fans say it's nonaddictive and can be used responsibly.

Others, such as San Diego limited Tamara Soto, said the effects are too strong to be fun. Soto, 29, said she found herself reeling with the sensation of sliding complete a tunnel of light and dark when she tried salvia a couple of years ago. It was really super-intense," she said. It wasn't a very pleasurable experience." San Diego State University has conducted individual of the few studies that gauge salvia use.

In the midst the more than 1,500 learner surveyed last year, 4.4 percent reported using it in the previous year. The glance at is a snapshot, but it shows that salvia is making an appearance on campus, said James Lange, the university's coordinator of alcohol and drug initiatives and one of the study's directors.

What remains unknown are the long-term health consequences, Lange said. We corner no sort of human studies on its effects or potential for harm," Lange said.

We do know institute pupil are using it and are in a sense fitting human guinea pigs representing what may or may not be a bad substance."

Lange said he had his researchers read hundreds of YouTube videos such as the single featuring the wriggling teen now so little is known approximately the drug's effects.

From http://signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080312-9999-1n12salvi~.html

Interview: The science of herbal remedies 11 March 2008 Peter Houghton hillock Joanne Thomson that there is still much to be learnt from standard medicine. Peter Houghton is Professor in Pharmacognosy in the department of pharmacy at Kings College London.

His research room include substances from bush of potential use in treating central bothered system degenerative disease, cancer and for injury healing. He is further interested in the investigation of herbal medicines.

Peter joined the Habitual Product Story leading article board at the beginning of 2008. What inspired you to become a scientist? I have always been intrigued by the amazing variety in nature and wondered how things work and how they were formed.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in the Cotswolds and my father, who was a pharmacist, pointed out many of the wild shrub growing there. I guess that is where my particular interest started.

I have always been intrigued alongside the amazing divergency in nature" However, I like exploring in all sorts of ways and drink in working elsewhere connections between manifestly unrelated facts and how we, as humans, have exploited these.

I think that it is very important for us scientists not to lose a sense of wonder at the incredible complication and beauty of the world around us and the skill and skill of what humans can do. You are interested in ethnopharmacology. Could you analyze what this is and why it is important in the development of original drugs?

Ethnopharmacology is the well-ordered study of traditional medicines, the matter worn for medicinal, pharmaceutical and toxicological purposes by deviating human cultures and societies. Assorted of these materials consist of plants or fungi and their biological activity is, of course, due to the chemical compounds contained in them.

Many important drugs enjoy morphine, digoxin and reserpine came into use being the plants containing them were known as poisons and used as medicines.

In addition, full compounds can serve as lead molecules such as the local anaesthetics derived from cocaine and the muscle relaxants based on curare alkaloids.

The antimalarial artemisinin and galantamine, which is euphemistic pre-owned to deal with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, are recently-introduced medicine which have an ethnopharmacological basis. What are you working on at the moment?

I have an interest in plants used to balm cognitive impairment in dated age, and those cast-off to treat cancer and diabetes." In recent years I have been interested in tree used traditionally to help cognitive impairment in old age, particularly with regard to cholinesterase inhibitors and antioxidants.

I also have an interest in plants used to treat cancer and diabetes and those used to comfort wounds to heal. Do you lap up there is a place for both household and Western medicament in society today?

Very definitely. Medicine is increasingly realising that mixtures of compose are often more useful in treating a malady than a single 'silver bullet' chemical.

Modern approaches to chemotherapy of cancer and AIDS are instance of this. There is increasing evidence for 'polyvalence' in habitual medicines. In other words, contradistinct genre of constituent are present with differing modes of action but all contributing to the all-inclusive clinical effect.

From http://rsc.org/publishing/journals/cb/volume/2008/4/intervie~.asp