Another botanical clinical trial doomed to failure from day 1 [Terra Sigillata]

Published: July 30, 2007, 8:39 am

This post appeared originally on 8 Feb 2006 at the old site for this blog. A frequent reader and commenter, Joe, suggested that I repost it here as it illustrates many common problems with clinical trials of botanical medicines. You'd think the funding folks would learn at the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). But, not as evidenced by the report in tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine detailing the lack of efficacy of saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) extract in the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy. Yet another well-designed double-blind, placebo-controlled trial has been doomed to failure by inadequate chemical characteriztion of the study material. Political pressure to produce a postive clinical result has bypassed the normal path of pre-requisite basic science studies, casting a shadow on what may still be a useful herbal medicine. About 2.5 million US men use extracts of berries from saw palmetto, a low-lying, scrubby palm

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