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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Feb 15.
Published in final edited form as: Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2007 Oct 12;227(1):125–135. doi: 10.1016/j.taap.2007.10.005

Table 3. Ethnopharmacology of commonly used plants in Mexico.

Herbal remedy Clinical trials Side effects Drug interactions
Nopal Diabetes BPH Atherosclerosis. Alcohol hangover (Palevitch et al., 1994; Roman-Ramos et al., 1995; Shapiro and Gong, 2002; Cho et al., 2006) Diarrhea, nausea, abdominal fullness and headache (De Smet, 2002) None reported
Pepermint Barium enema-related colonic spasm. Dyspepsia. Irritable bowel syndrome. (Meltzer et al., 2004; Mizuno et al., 2006) Heartburn, nausea, vomiting, allergic reactions; hepatotoxicity; alterations in levels of testosterone, LH and FSH (Maniacal and Wanwimolruk, 2001; Akdogan et al., 2004; Unger and Frank, 2004) Cytochrome P450 (Maniacal and Wanwimolruk, 2001)
Chaparral None reported Hepatotoxicity (Kauma et al., 2004) None reported
Dandelion Urinary tract infections. Anti-inflammatory effect. (Cho et al., 2002; Hu and Kitts, 2003) Allergic reactions, palpitations, syncope and erythema multiforme (Agarwal et al., 2006; Gagnier et al., 2006) Ciprofloxacine Citochrome P450, UDP-glucoronosyltransferase (Zhu et al., 1999; Maniacal and Wanwimolruk, 2001)
Mullein Otitis media (De Smet, 2002) None reported None reported
Chamomile Dyspepsia. Oral mucositis (Meltzer et al., 2004; McKay and Blumberg, 2006) Allergic reactions and conjunctivitis (Paulsen, 2002; De Smet, 2002) Warfarin Citochrome P450 (Segal and Pilote, 2006)
Nettle Osteoarthritis. BPH Allergic rhinitis (hayfever) (Mittman, 1990; Lopatkin et al., 2005) Uterine-stimulant effects, it can induce abortion (Heinrich, 2003; Gagnier et al., 2006) None reported
Passionflower Generalized anxiety disorder Opiate withdrawal. (Akhondzadeh et al., 2001a,b) Dizziness, confusion and ataxia; Vasculitis; nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, tachycardia; hepatic and pancreatic toxicity (Heinrich, 2003; Ernest, 2006) None reported
Linden Flower Anxiety (Budesanzeiger,1998) Allergic reactions (Mur et al., 2001) None reported
Aloe Psoriasis. Hyperlipidemia Diabetes. (Syed et al., 1996; Yeh et al., 2003; Langmead et al., 2004) Hypoglycemia Hypokalemia Decrease platelet aggregation Prolog bleeding time Diarrhea and loss of water and electrolytes (Shaw et al., 1997; De Smet, 2002; Garnier et al., 2006) Hypoglycemic drugs Cardiac glycosides (Shaw et al., 1997; Federici et al., 2005; Bush et al 2007)