Constructing a bilingual website with validated database for Herb and Western medicine interactions using Ginseng, Ginkgo and Dong Quai as examples

Overview of Current Herb-Drug Interaction Databases

An HERB-Drug Interaction (HDI) database is a structured data collection method for HDI information extracted from scattered literatures for quick retrieval. Our review summarized the ten currently available HDI databases, including those databases comprising HDI on the market. A detailed comparison on the scope of monographs, including the nature of content extracted from the original literature and user interfaces of these databases, was performed, and the number of references of fifty popular herbs in each HDI database was counted and presented in a heatmap to give users an intuitive understanding of the focuses of different HDI databases. Since it is well known that the development and maintenance of databases need continuous investment of capital and manpower, the sustainability of these databases was also reviewed and compared. Recently, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, especially Natural Language Processing (NLP), have been applied to screen specific topics from massive articles and automatically identify the names of drugs and herbs in the literature. However, its application on the labor-intensive extraction and evaluation of HDI-related experimental conditions and results from literature remains limited due to the scarcity of these HDI data and the lack of well-established annotated datasets for these specific NLP recognition tasks. In view of the difficulties faced by current HDI databases and potential expansion of AI application in HDI database development, we propose a standardized format for data reporting and use of Concept Unique Identifier (CUI) for medical terms in the literature to accelerate the structured data collection. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The worldwide popularity of botanical and/or traditional medicine products has raised safety concerns due to potential HDI. However, the publicly available HDI databases are mostly outdated or incomplete. Through our review of the currently available HDI databases, a clear understanding of the key issues could be obtained and possible solutions to overcome the labour-intensive extraction as well as professional evaluation of information in HDI database development are proposed.

A Review of Authenticity and Authentication of Commercial Ginseng Herbal Medicines and Food Supplements

Ginseng traditional medicines and food supplements are the globally top selling herbal products. Panax ginseng, Panax quinquefolius and Panax notoginseng are the main commercial ginseng species in herbal medicine. Prices of ginseng products vary widely based on the species, quality, and purity of the used ginseng, and this provides a strong driver for intentional adulteration. Our systematic literature search has reviewed the authenticity results of 507 ginseng-containing commercial herbal products sold in 12 countries scattered across six continents. The analysis of the botanical and chemical identity of all these products shows that 76% are authentic while 24% were reported as adulterated. The number of commercial products as well as the percentage of adulteration varies significantly between continents, being highest in South America (100%) and Australia (75%), and lower in Europe (35%), North America (23%), Asia (21%) and Africa (0%). At a national level, from the five countries for which more than 10 products have been successfully authenticated, the highest percentage of adulterated ginseng products were purchased from Taiwan (49%), followed by Italy (37%), China (21%), and USA (12%), while all products bought in South Korea were reported to be authentic. In most cases, labeled Panax species were substituted with other Panax species, but substitution of ginseng root, the medicinally recommended plant part, with leaves, stems or flowers was also reported. Efficient and practical authentication using biomarkers to distinguish the main ginseng varieties and secondary metabolite spectra for age determination are essential to combat adulteration in the global marketplace.