The so-called authoritative Natural Database which claims to provide physicians with rigorous information about botanicals and dietary supplements continues to demonstrate how appallingly uncritical it is by supporting the recent absurd claims culled from MEDLINE about chamomile toxicity - based upon idiotic reports such as abuse of chamomile foot lotion and chamomile scented TP.

(See HERBLOG May 4th and yesterday below June 6th)

While the standard of pharmacist-compiled information on herbs is of necessity low - being based upon a) lack of training and experience and b) an uncritical reliance on mainstream reports in MEDLINE, the Natural Database seems to be plumbing new depths even for the PharmD community, as well as spectacularly undermining their so-called credibility to the extent of shooting themselves theselves in the foot with both barrels. Quite bizarre really.

The dangers of chamomile continue to concern the protectors of our health and well-being as MEDLINE reports expose more hitherto unknown horrors of this toxic botanical. Following on from the lethal effects of chamomile foot lotion on coagulation (HERBLOG May 4th) , we now discover that a 20-year old woman suffered from acute short lasting allergic rhinitis while using “camomile (sic) scented TP”.

It may seem disingenuous to raise methodological questions about the validity of this report, such as what conceivable relationship to any herb whatsoever, never mind chamomile (whose essential oil is incredibly costly) does “chamomile-scented” TP have, never mind what exactly what was the patient doing with the TP when the incident occurred in order to induce such an unfortunate attack. Suffice it to say that removal of the offending roll from the bathroom prevented the symptoms from recurring - a stroke of genius illustrating preventive self-care by an empowered patient at its best. She is apparently now doing very well with a ” Woodland Pine” scent from a different TP manufacturer despite concerns about its possible interactions with anticoagulant drugs.
You have been warned.

Scala, G. (2006). “Acute, short-lasting rhinitis due to camomile-scented toilet paper in patients allergic to compositae.” Int Arch Allergy Immunol 139(4): 330-1