The German ''Commission E'' is a scientific advisory board of the

Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (in German: Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte – ''BfArM'') is the medical regulatory body in Germany. It operates under the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG). It is headquarte ...

formed in 1978. The commission gives scientific expertise for the approval of substances and products previously used in traditional, folk and herbal medicine. The commission became known beyond Germany in the 1990s for compiling and publishing 380 monographs evaluating the safety and efficacy of herbs for licensed medical prescribing in Germany. The monographs were published between 1984 and 1994 in the ''

Bundesanzeiger The ''Bundesanzeiger'' is an official publication of the Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, ...

''; they have not been updated since then but are still considered valid. A summary of the publications is available on the website of the commission; unofficial copies of the monographs are available at the ''Heilpflanzen-Welt Bibliothek''. The monographs are a collection of official documents compiled over nearly two decades by a committee composed of twenty four scientific experts that was set up in 1978 to evaluate the safety and efficacy of herbal medicines by reviewing the extant literature. There is an English translation by the American Botanical Council.

Criticism concerning the American version of the monographs

The Commission E monographs were imported into the United States with considerable fanfare in 1998 by The American Botanical Council. They were unequivocally endorsed in a

foreword A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the ...

Varro Eugene Tyler Varro Eugene Tyler (December 19, 1926 – August 22, 2001), of Auburn, Nebraska, was an American professor of pharmacognosy and philatelist who specialized in the study of forged postage stamps and the forgers who created them. Academic career ...

, a professor of

pharmacognosy Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal plants and other natural substances as sources of drugs. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical, and biological properties of drug ...

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

. Tyler states in his foreword that ''"...safety data were reviewed by the Commissioners according to a "doctrine of absolute proof" and efficacy according to a "doctrine of reasonable certainty''." The 1998 book mentioned 10 but omitted 11 possible fatal reactions to the medicines described. "All f the monographslack literature references. . .." The best known critic of ''Commission E'' is Jonathan Treasure, MNIMH, a UK-licensed medical herbalist and author of numerous herbalism monographs. Treasure's lengthy review (31 K) claims that "The failure to include verifiable scientific primary sources necessarily places the entire Commission E Monograph corpus irredeemably outside the most elementary accepted standards of academic requirements for rigorous scientific publications."

References

{{Reflist

External links

English list of monographs

German list of monographs

Google Books version of the monographs in English
Biologically-based therapies Medical manuals Legal history of Germany Alternative medicine publications