Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7595

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Publication type: news

Kontominas B.
Natural remedies seen as dab in the dark
The Sydney Morning Herald 2007 Jan 9
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/natural-remedies-seen-as-dab-in-the-dark/2007/01/08/1168104923426.html

Full text:

REACHING for the aloe vera next time you are sunburnt may be a waste of time, according to the consumer magazine Choice.

In its latest issue, the magazine reviewed international medical journal articles on the effectiveness of aloe vera and other natural healing products such as tea-tree oil, St John’s Wort, lavender oil and honey.

It found that despite generations of folklore promoting their benefits, many natural remedies were yet to be scientifically proven as effective first-aid treatments.

“There is such a wide variety of so-called natural remedies out there, we thought it would be timely just to see how the body of scientific evidence was stacking up in or against their favour,” said a Choice spokeswoman, Indira Naidoo. “There is a lot of information out there but a lot of it is reaching the conclusion that it is too early to prove [or that] there needs to be more research.”

Of the eight natural remedies examined, all have been said to protect the body against infection, while four have been promoted for their ability to heal wounds.

Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist, said that while some natural remedies, such as tea-tree oil, could help clear minor skin infections, it could prompt some to use them on serious infections, with unknown results. “We need to be careful we don’t rush in with too much enthusiasm for something that doesn’t have enough data to show it works . and secondly that it doesn’t cause toxicity that we’re not aware of.”

Professor Collignon and Choice called for more research into natural remedies. The president of the National Herbalists Association, John Baxter, said there was plenty of clinical research to prove they worked as a first-aid treatment.