Best Available Evidence in Cochrane Reviews on Herbal Medicine?

Table 1

The eleven most relevant Cochrane reviews extracted for the most important details of herbal medication characteristics.

Reference	Origin of herbal	Herbal medicine characteristics
	medicines	Plant part (PP)	mg/day	DER	Solvent	Marker/day
[3] (5/2011); Irritable bowel syndrome	66 Chinese; 1 Tibetan; 1 Indian; 3 European	Stated in 𝑛=3; 2 patented products up to 20 PP
[4] (9/2012); Advanced colon cancer	Chinese; cotreatment to; chemotherapy	Not stated
[5] (4/2006); Low back pain	European^$	Stated in 𝑛=8	Stated in 𝑛=8	Stated in 𝑛=8	Stated in 𝑛=8	Stated in 𝑛=8
[6] (1/2009); Type 2 diabetes	69 Chinese^&	Stated in 𝑛=2; up to 20 PP
[7] (10/2005); Schizophrenia	2 Chinese; 2 Chinese + Western; 1 European + Western	Stated in 𝑛=3^#; up to 10 PP; formula changes in 𝑛=1	Stated in 𝑛=3
[8] (5/2012); Threatened miscarriage	5 Chinese; 20 Chinese + Western	Stated in 𝑛=3; up to 14 PP; formula changes in 𝑛=28
[9] (1/2010); Chronic neck pain	Chinese	Stated in 𝑛=2; up to 6 PP	Stated in 𝑛=1
[10] (4/2006); Pre-eclampsia	zero
[11] (11/2010); Primary dysmenorrhea	Chinese	Stated in 𝑛=37; up to 23 PP; formula changes; in 𝑛=19	Stated in 𝑛=10
[12] (6/2011); Diabetic neuropathy	Chinese^%	Not stated	Not stated
[13] (8/2011); Hypercholesterinaemia	3 Chinese^§; 1 European	Stated in 𝑛=1	Stated in all

DER: drug extract ratio; ^&one containing an additional alkaloid; ^#extract Egb761 is produced according to GMP from Ginkgo leaf; §one study investigated an isolated compound; ^$two external medications containing additional synthetic compounds; ^%eight patented Chinese products.