Herbal products have gained popularity, and they are often perceived as safe. The roles of the pharmacists and physicians are essential in the proper usage of those products. This study aimed to investigate the students of Faculty of Medicine in Niš about the use of herbal preparations and the differences between medicine, pharmacy and dentistry students. The fifth-year university students were questioned through an anonymous survey. The obtained results were processed statistically and presented graphically. The majority of the students would prefer a combination of herb product and drug (76.9%). Usage of herbal products is based on students' knowledge, on the advice of pharmacists, family members, physicians, and the media. The majority of students purchase herbal products in the pharmacy and nobody obtained them via the Internet. Most of the students used them in preventive purposes (60%) and claimed that there were positive effects. Students (75%) read the instructions for use and side effects, especially pharmacy students (88.3%). Medicine students (60%) consider herbal products completely safe. Pharmacy students are considered to receive the necessary knowledge on herbal products (68.3%), while a smaller percentage of medicine and dentistry students consider the same. Students use herbal medicines but are not entirely familiar with their effects and safety. There is a need for raising awareness, the importance of side effects and interactions of herbs and drugs among medicine and dentistry students. This goal can be achieved by changing curriculum which would contain material from phytotherapy.
Ameade, E. P., Amalba, A., Helegbe, G. K., & Mohammed, B. S. (2015). Herbal medicine: a survey on the knowledge and attitude of medical students in Tamale, Ghana. Peak Journal of Medicinal Plant Research, 3(1), 1–8.
Bauer, B. A. (2000). Herbal Therapy: What a Clinician Needs to Know to Counsel Patients Effectively (Vol. 75, Issue 8, pp. 835–841). https://doi.org/10.4065/75.8.835
B.B, P. (2012). Historical review of medicinal plants’ usage. Pharmacogn. Rev, 6(11), 1–5.
Bent, S. (2008). Herbal Medicine in the United States: Review of Efficacy, Safety, and Regulation (Vol. 23, Issue 6, pp. 854–859). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-008-0632-y
Booker, A., Johnston, D., & Heinrich, M. (2015). Value Chains of Herbal Medicines—Ethnopharmacological and Analytical Challenges in a Globalizing World (pp. 29–44). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-800874-4.00002-7
Boparai, J., Singh, A., Gupta, A., Matreja, P., Khanna, P., Gupta, V., & Gautam, R. (2017). A study to determine the knowledge and level of awareness of medical undergraduates about herbal medicines and herb-drug interactions. https://doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20164509
Chekole, G. (2017). Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used against human ailments in Gubalafto District, Northern Ethiopia (Vol. 13, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-017-0182-7
Clement, Y. N., Morton-Gittens, J., Basdeo, L., Blades, A., Francis, M.-J., Gomes, N., Janjua, M., & Singh, A. (2007). Perceived efficacy of herbal remedies by users accessing primary healthcare in Trinidad (Vol. 7, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-7-4
Clement, Y. N., Williams, A. F., Khan, K., Bernard, T., Bhola, S., Fortuné, M., Medupe, O., Nagee, K., & Seaforth, C. E. (2005). A gap between acceptance and knowledge of herbal remedies by physicians: The need for educational intervention (Vol. 5, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-5-20
Corrêa da Silva, M. G., Soares, M. C. F., & Muccillo-Baisch, A. L. (2012). Self-medication in university students from the city of Rio Grande, Brazil (Vol. 12, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-339
Cujic, N., Ibric, S., Bigovic, D., Noveski, N., & Savikin, K. (2015). Stability testing of herbal medicines (Issue 35, pp. 53–60). https://doi.org/10.5937/leksir1535053c
Ekor, M. (2014). The growing use of herbal medicines: issues relating to adverse reactions and challenges in monitoring safety. Front. Pharmacol, 4, 177.
F. Builders, P. (n.d.). Introductory Chapter: Introduction to Herbal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.78661
Fakeye, T. O., & Onyemadu, O. (n.d.). Evaluation of knowledge base of hospital pharmacists and physicians on herbal medicines in Southwestern Nigeria (Vol. 6, Issue 2). https://doi.org/10.4321/s1886-36552008000200005
Gardiner, P., Graham, R., Legedza, A. T. R., Ahn, A. C., Eisenberg, D. M., & Phillips, R. S. (2007). Factors associated with herbal therapy use by adults in the United States. Altern. Ther. Health Med, 13(2), 22–29.
Gardiner, P., Kemper, K. J., Legedza, A., & Phillips, R. S. (2007). Factors Associated with herb and dietary supplement use by young adults in the United States (Vol. 7, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6882-7-39
Howell, L., Kochhar, K., Saywell, R., Zollinger, T., Koehler, J., Mandzuk, C., Sutton, B., Sevilla-Martir, J., & Allen, D. (2006). Use of Herbal Remedies by Hispanic Patients: Do They Inform Their Physician? (Vol. 19, Issue 6, pp. 566–578). https://doi.org/10.3122/jabfm.19.6.566
Kennedy, J., Wang, C.-C., & Wu, C.-H. (2008). Patient Disclosure about Herb and Supplement Use among Adults in the US (Vol. 5, Issue 4, pp. 451–456). https://doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nem045
Newberry, H., Beerman, K., Duncan, S., McGuire, M., & Hillers, V. (2001). Use of Nonvitamin, Nonmineral Dietary Supplements Among College Students (Vol. 50, Issue 3, pp. 123–129). https://doi.org/10.1080/07448480109596016
Nur, N. (n.d.). Knowledge and behaviours related to herbal remedies: a cross-sectional epidemiological study in adults in Middle Anatolia, Turkey (Vol. 18, Issue 4, pp. 389–395). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2524.2010.00911.x
Pan, S. Y., Zhou, S. F., Gao, S. H., Yu, Z. L., Zhang, S. F., Tang, M. K., Sun, J. N., Ma, D. L., Han, Y. F., Fong, W. F., & Ko, K. M. (2013). New perspectives on how to discover drugs from herbal medicines: CAM’s outstanding contribution to modern therapeutics. Evid-Based Compl. Alt, 627375.
PERKIN, J. E., WILSON, W. J., SCHUSTER, K., RODRIGUEZ, J., & ALLEN-CHABOT, A. (2002). Prevalence of Nonvitamin, Nonmineral Supplement Usage Among University Students (Vol. 102, Issue 3, pp. 412–414). https://doi.org/10.1016/s0002-8223(02)90096-9
Saad, B., Azaizeh, H., Abu-Hijleh, G., & Said, O. (2006). Safety of Traditional Arab Herbal Medicine (Vol. 3, Issue 4, pp. 433–439). https://doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nel058
Samojlik, I., Mijatović, V., Gavarić, N., Krstin, S., & Božin, B. (2013). Consumers’ attitude towards the use and safety of herbal medicines and herbal dietary supplements in Serbia (Vol. 35, Issue 5, pp. 835–840). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-013-9819-3
Sekhri, K., Bhanwra, S., & Nandha, R. (2013). Herbal products: a survey of students’ perception and knowledge about their medicinal use (Vol. 2, Issue 1, p. 71). https://doi.org/10.5455/2319-2003.ijbcp20130114
SMA, A., B, A., & DA, D. (n.d.). Perceptions and Use of Medicinal Herbs among College Students at a Jordanian University in Amman-Jordan: Traditions Supersedes Education (Vol. 05, Issue 03). https://doi.org/10.4172/2573-4555.1000191
Sofowora, A., Ogunbodede, E., & Onayade, A. (2013). The role and rlace of medicinial plants in the strategies for disease prevention. Afr. J. Tradit. Complement. Altern. Med, 10(5), 210–229.
Stragar, J., Pilih, M., Pogacnik, M., & Znidarcic, D. (2013). Knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses among secondary and grammar school students: A case study from Slovenia.
Strgar, J., Pilih, M., Pogacnik, M., & Znidarcic, D. (2013). Knowledge of medicinal plants and their uses among secondary and grammar school students: A case study from Slovenia (Vol. 65, Issue 3, pp. 1123–1129). https://doi.org/10.2298/abs1303123s
Wahner-Roedler, D. L., Vincent, A., Elkin, P. L., Loehrer, L. L., Cha, S. S., & Bauer, B. A. (2006). Physicians’ Attitudes Toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Their Knowledge of Specific Therapies: A Survey at an Academic Medical Center (Vol. 3, Issue 4, pp. 495–501). https://doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nel036
Walker, P. S., & Donovan, J. A. (1999). Herbal remedies: natural caveats (Vol. 38, Issue 10, pp. 746–748). https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-4362.1999.00825.x
Xu, S., & Levine, M. (2008). Medicine residents’ and students’ attitudes towards herbal medicines: a pilot study. Can. J. Clin. Pharmacol, 15(1), 1–4.
Yoshida, N., Numano, M., Nagasaka, Y., Ueda, K., Tsuboi, H., Tanimoto, T., & Kimura, K. (2015). Study on health hazards through medicines purchased on the Internet: a cross-sectional investigation of the quality of anti-obesity medicines containing crude drugs as active ingredients (Vol. 15, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-015-0955-2
Citation
Copyright
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The statements, opinions and data contained in the journal are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). We stay neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
