Either it’s not safe or it’s not safe
From Paul Bergner’s review of The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines:
The arcane rules and regulations of the commission have led to a book with bizarre contradictions and inconsistencies. Echinacea purpurea is approved for use. Echinacea angustifolia, the stronger herb in practice is not approved. To make matters more confusing, although Echiancea angustifolia is not approved, it is listed as contraindicated in autoimmune diseases because it might aggravate them. Which is it? Either it is an ineffective medicine or it is safe, it can’t be both.
Which is it? Um … that it’s … not … safe? E. angustifolia is not approved and … um … they list it as contraindicated in autoimmune disease?
The only way I can make sense of this is if Bergner thinks that by listing it as being contraindicated with patients with autoimmune diseases, that it’s OK for every other patient. Compare a possible statement of “hemlock is contraindicated in patients with liver problems” or “cocaine is contraindicated in patients with heart arrhythmia”; it may be an especially bad idea for those people, but probably still not a good idea for everyone else.
This person is apparently “Editor, Medical Herbalism journal”, according to the Amazon profile. I think I’ll go ahead and skip that publication.
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