Goldenseal, A Natural Botanical Product Interferes With Blood Sugar Control

Goldenseal a natural botanical product can interfere with the absorption of metformin, the anti-diabetic drug and compromise blood sugar control and increase negative outcomes.

Investigators have found that Goldenseal, a natural botanical product, may interfere with the intestinal absorption of metformin thereby compromising blood glucose control in patients with Type 2 diabetes. Metformin is an anti-diabetic used in the treatment of diabetes.

Lead investigator James T. Nyugen PharmD, a PhD candidate at Washington State University, Spokane and his colleagues tested for interactions between goldenseal and several drugs in healthy volunteers.

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‘Goldenseal a natural botanical product can interfere with the absorption of metformin and compromise blood sugar control and increase negative outcomes.’
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The results are published in the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

The investigators said, “Supplements containing goldenseal ... a perennial herb native to North America, have consistently ranked among the top 20 highest selling natural products during the last decade. As more patients continue to seek goldenseal and other natural products to self-treat their medical conditions, there is an increasing need to characterize their safety profiles, especially when co-consumed with prescribed medications, which can lead to adverse natural product-drug interactions."

Earlier clinical studies have shown that goldenseal inhibits cytochrome P450 and one study showed a 40 percent increase in the concentration of midazolam in the body.

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Clinical studies and in vitro studies were conducted by the investigators to determine the relation between goldenseal and metformin.

They found that goldenseal has an effect on intestinal absorption of metformin and co-administration of metformin and goldenseal may compromise blood glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes and increase their risk of negative health outcomes.

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Paine said, “While this finding warrants a degree of caution to be exercised among patients and their treating physicians, we have more work to do to confirm whether these findings in healthy volunteers in fact have clinical relevance in the management of diabetes. We are in the process of starting a follow-up study that should ultimately answer that question."

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Source-Medindia