Well, here's a much more recent article about Rhodiola.

https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/rhodiola-rosea.html

I share skepticism about any herb (or any type of drug, for that matter) that's touted to cure and/or be effective for a wide range of conditions. In my experience, any such product is most likely not very effective against any of them. Magic bullets are very rare indeed.

I haven't seen any well-conducted large-scale clinical trials showing that Rhodiola works against cancer, liver disease, stress-related symptoms or anything else.

And before we hear that no such trials have been conducted because there's no money in it or that natural products can't be patented, rest assured that they can and have been, and that drug companies would be onto a true cure-all in no time - they'd make a fortune on it.

rhodiola is an adaptogenic herb...meaning it helps the body adapt to stressors and has a wide variety of benefits.

large scale clinical trials are rarely conducted on herbs since trials are expensive and a plant cannot be patented....only certain isolated constituents can. this is why there is a lack of such studies conducted by the mainstream medical community.

there is plenty of research done by herbal chemists however...the works of mills and bone in their phytotherapy text is one excellent example, there are others.

re the poisonous plant database...take the word "poisonous" with a grain of salt. while this warning does serve the purpose of keeping folks who don't know better away from these plants, it is misleading. one example is poke berries....folks who read it somewhere will swear they are deadly poison. yet i have taken them internally for years with good benefit. so yeah, context and level of expertise matters a lot when it comes to herbs.

If the FDA doesn't like it, its probably good.

"large scale clinical trials are rarely conducted on herbs since trials are expensive and a plant cannot be patented"

This is a common claim, but largely untrue.* There have been numerous clinical trials involving herbal drugs, (as the following article indicates); what limitations on large-scale trials have existed are due more to sellers' unwillingness to fund such trials, given that U.S. regulations already permit substantial health claims to be made without good evidence. Why risk a study concluding that an herbal drug doesn't work, when sales are already good? And it's certainly possible to patent herbal meds, using a particular formulation or adaptation of the molecules involved (this is done for non-herbal drugs all the time).

"Our results suggest high-impact journals publish a significant number of CAM studies with negative results..."

https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7015-6-35

The article concludes that media coverage of clinical trials of drugs (surprise) tends to be superficial, and doesn't warn consumers about conflicts of interest in research, which affect both herbal and non-herbal drugs.

"Despite repeated studies, the media continues to provide insufficient information to the public largely through omission, an under-reporting of risk, and a lack of disclosure of trial funding and potential conflicts of interest. The latter is true for both pharmaceuticals and herbal remedies but may be more critical for herbals, which may be accessed by the lay public without a physician intermediary."

"if the FDA doesn't like it, its probably good."

Then you believe that all the misbranded, illegally marketed and potentially dangerous drugs the FDA has ordered removed from the market (or not approved in the first place (like thalidomide, which an FDA scientist, Frances Kelsey blocked) are "probably good"?

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm152678.htm

*note: encouraging the consumption of pokeweed berries is a really bad idea.

http://poison.org/articles/2012-aug/pokeberries-and-grapes-look-alike

If the FDA doesn't like an herbal treatment, it is probably good. Since its a forum about herbs.

Most of the drugs and foods they allow shouldn't have gotten through. FDA is filled with people that have conflicting interests. They let the makers do the test to determine safety. They mislabel or ban it if it might get in the way of business. Even when they base drugs on a plant compound, it often causes side effects that just using the plain old herb doesn't. There might be a few instances where this can be beneficial, digitalis to avoid overdosing and its convenient ... in most cases its just to make profits. The drug gets patented and is easier to make large amounts in a lab to sell. And those problems are actually a plus. People get new symptoms and then get prescribed another drug. The point of a business is to make money... its legally required they put money first. They don't want to cure you, a cure isn't profitable compared to what they've got. Doctors offices are a business. They'll prescribe the expensive patented drug over the one that is no longer patented. Send you to other doctors rather than diagnose anything themselves. Mixing up an herbal prescription would eat up too much of your 15 minute visit and reduce the number of patients they get to see. They always are so scheduled that you can't get in if you're acutely ill. They don't know anything about herbs or nutrition unless they learned it on their own.

"Adults have eaten the roots, mistaking them for medicinal plants. " The line from that source is simplistic and false. It is a medicinal plant. Herbalists don't go around telling people to go chomping on pokeberries or to devour roots, they tell them it is toxic and has to be used in a very specific way and dose. People who eat the salat know how to gather and cook it, and they'll tell you how, they don't just say to go eat it. If a person goes around eating things that they haven't bothered to ID or research then they're probably as likely to eat a handful of aspirin for a headache... usually its kids that get poisoned by the berries...doubt if adults just decide to eat some unknown berries that actually don't look like grapes. But the majority of herbs used as medicine are not even mildly toxic. People who cite "science-based-medicine" (buzzword for profitable AMA approved techniques, not to be confused with science or medicine) always choose a few potentially toxic plants or ones that aren't even used as medicine to bash. Or they choose the cures of early patent medicine "doctors" who are actually the originators of our current medical mess... talk about hypocrisy. Death and disease from the drugs taken as prescribed ... very high numbers. That's just the reported / admitted ones...

The studies on plants like comfrey or sassafras root are nonsense. (If you want to declare it dangerous, stuff a rat full over long periods until it dies, or use highly concentrated extracts, or do studies on humans that can't be controlled very well since they weren't all raised in a box in the same environment over several generations.) How long would any pharmaceutical drug last subjected to those kinds of rules?

There are other countries that do studies on herbs that don't ask what the desired outcome is supposed to be first.

"The point of a business is to make money... its legally required they put money first. They don't want to cure you, a cure isn't profitable compared to what they've got."

Ah, the evil They are out to get you, because They don't get sick Themselves, or have families or friends they care about.

They're just evil.

People selling herbal treatments and supplement dealers, by contrast, are never motivated by business concerns and making money, and would never steer you wrong.

Sure.

Show me the evidence something works for a health condition, and I'll consider using it, rather than depending on the naturalistic fallacy ("if it's natural, it must be good") and being swayed by fear and suspicion of the motives of everyone whose opinions differ from mine.

They (the very rich, high-level politicians, etc... not whatever you're trying to invent) don't touch standard crappy medicine and treatment, and they know a lot more about how to avoid the illnesses people get. And it is very clear they don't care about the lower classes, they never have seen them as more than a resource. And supplement dealers aren't usually herbalists. If they're lying and selling something dangerous (when taken as directed) , they should be accountable. But then so should pharmaceutical companies. Better yet, actual punishment for real people at the companies... jail, murder charges. Same goes for doctors.

Also no one here said "if its natural its good"... but a lot of people think standard medicine is inept at best and horrible at worst. This includes several who studied it and are upset that they can't cure their patients. Other doctors are horrible scum who really don't care what they do to you and practice in a way that causes a lot of chronic injury and death, but are protected by unjust laws and large hospitals that get millions from their services.

I'd prefer if you stayed by standard medicine. They've got some great cancer therapies, I hear. If you don't have interest in herbalism, it is rather strange for you to spend time on such a forum. I suppose you would claim that drug companies don't hire people to do just that, though.

It's a fantasy that the wealthy magically are able to avoid the diseases besetting the rest of us. For instance, some cancers are actually more common in well-off people.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/rich-women-more-likely-to-develop-breast-cancer-study-finds/article577150/

https://www.webmd.com/melanoma-skin-cancer/news/20110321/melanoma-rates-may-be-higher-for-the-rich#1

"They (the very rich, high-level politicians, etc... not whatever you're trying to invent) don't touch standard crappy medicine and treatment"

They make use of the best evidence-based care available. When they don't (as in the case of Steve Jobs, who tried woo for his pancreatic tumor before turning back to mainstream care), it backfires.

Part of my interest in herbalism involves informing people when useless and/or dangerous remedies are recommended. I suppose you would claim that supplement/herbal drug promoters do not pose as regular posters on forums such as these. :)

It's best to avoid the shill gambit and stick to facts.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-pharma-shill-gambit/