Abstract
Many pharmacovigilance centres worldwide receive spontaneous reports for herbal medicines (including unapproved/unlicensed products) in addition to reports for conventional medicines. Reports involving herbal medicines are stored in pharmacovigilance databases that are mainly developed for storing, coding, assessing, analysing and transferring data to other databases in the context of conventional medicines. Using correct nomenclature for herbal medicinal products and their ingredients is essential to overcome confusion about the plant substances that are described in reports in pharmacovigilance databases. Binomial names for plants are recommended to be used in addition to naming the part of the plant and preparation method in the reports in the database. For pharmacovigilance centres using the WHODrug Global® dictionary, the Herbal-ATC (HATC) coding system is available. The HATC classification provides a scientific framework for a harmonized, global nomenclature and therapeutic classification of herbal substances and combinations of them used as ingredients in herbal medicines. However, the HATC also has some limitations, and is not universally used. Other coding methods using binominal names for plants are described in this chapter together with a description of how the pharmacovigilance centres in Morocco and the Netherlands code adverse reaction reports for herbal medicines.
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van Hunsel, F., Skalli, S. (2022). Coding Reports Involving Herbal Medicines in a Pharmacovigilance Database. In: Barnes, J. (eds) Pharmacovigilance for Herbal and Traditional Medicines. Adis, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07275-8_9
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