Interactions pharmacocinétiques entre préparations à base de plantes et médicaments : une revue des absences d’interactions démontrées cliniquement

Abstract

After administered, the drug behavior is submitted to physico-chemical phenomena, enzymatic reactions, or transport via transporter proteins. The drug compound is absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and eliminated. A natural ingredient, taken concomitantly with the drug, may induce a herbdrug pharmacokinetic interaction. As a consequence, the drug may be underdosed or overdosed and clinical incidence such as lack of efficacy or adverse events could be seen. Clinical studies performed on healthy volunteers have demonstrated the clinical relevance of these herb-drug pharmacokinetic interactions. In this review, we focused on reported negative pharmacokinetic herb-drug interaction results obtained clinically. Indeed, several herb and drug associations have been evaluated and no herb-drug interaction with clinical incidence were noticed. These “negative” results are of importance in clinical practice as they demonstrate the absence of interactions risk at least in the studied populations.