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All licensed medicines undergo extensive, double blind trials to establish safety and effectiveness.
Most herbal 'medications' on the other hand have not undergone formal testing and their safety and efficacy are open to doubt. Any claims made as a consequence of trials, usually involve limited controls, a small testing sample and unsubstantiated results. Enough concern has been raised about the safety of herbal preparations to force a licencing programme to be implimented and this will be mandatory by 2011. However, under the 'Traditional Herbal Registration Scheme' (THR) there is no requirement to prove that the product works. It may well be the case that the herbal 'medicine' is little more than a placebo.
Further information can be found at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency website (MHRA)
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