Herbal Teas, Extracts and Natural Ingredients Safety: Start Here

This page points to the safety pages for herbal teas and extracts and for natural ingredients. The detail is on those pages. For other remedy types, see Safety by Remedy Type.

If someone may have swallowed something harmful, call 911 for collapse, seizure, trouble breathing or swelling of the face or throat, and Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 for anything else. See Poisoning: What to Do First.

Herbal teas and extracts

A tea, a tincture and a capsule made from the same plant are different products, and findings for one do not transfer to another. A familiar example comes from NCCIH: licorice root contains glycyrrhizin, which can cause serious adverse effects such as irregular heartbeat and cardiac arrest, especially in large amounts or long-term use.[1] NCCIH also reports interactions between licorice and corticosteroids, and says that consuming large amounts of licorice extract in pregnancy is unsafe.[1]

• Herbal Tea and Extract Safety: The Essentials
• Herbal Tea and Medicine Interactions
• Herbal Tea in Pregnancy and Herbal Tea for Babies and Children
• Senna and Other Laxative Teas
• Tincture and Extract Quality
• Herbal Tea Adulteration, Mold and Mislabeling
• Herbal Tea Safety Quick Reference

Natural ingredients

Natural ingredients include honey, clays, charcoal, vinegar, seaweed and bee products. Three points from the sources we read:

• Honey and babies. Poison Control says honey can contain botulism spores that can poison infants, and advises not to feed honey or products containing honey to infants under 12 months of age.[2] MedlinePlus gives the same age limit.[3]
• Activated charcoal. Poison Control says not to try to treat a poisoning with activated charcoal at home, and that burned toast or barbecue briquettes are not activated charcoal.[4]
• "Natural" claims. MedlinePlus says products labeled natural are not necessarily safe.[5]

What this page does not cover

It gives no recipes, no amounts and no steps for making teas, tinctures or remedies at home. Proper evidence not found in the sources we read here for a safety ranking of teas or ingredients, and this site does not rank them. For medicines, see Medicine Interactions.