Pharmacists complain about herbalist shops

Bülent Sarıoğlu – ANKARA

Pharmacists have complained about herbalist shops (“aktars”) in a presentation in parliament over what they said were products being sold obliviously and putting people’s lives in danger.

The academics said during their presentation given to the parliament commission in charge of medical and aromatic herbs in Turkey that the products at herbalist shops were stored “under bad conditions.”

“Herbalist shops unfortunately offer products in a very problematic way that they unfortunately put people’s health in danger. For example, as winter tea, they give you echinacea tea, but none of them tell you, ‘If you use echinacea for more than six-eight weeks, liver toxicity will happen and if you use it more long term, it might even lead to organ failure. But pharmacists know about this and warn [the people] about drug interactions,” said Prof. Dr. İffet İrem Tatlı Çankaya from Ankara’s Hacettepe University during the presentation.

Prof. Dr. Ekrem Sezik from Istanbul’s Yeditepe University said that herbalist shops were acting as if they were doctors or pharmacists. “They sell everything and unfortunately the state does not see this,” he said.

“An herbalist shop in Antakya [in southern Turkey] took out herbs from inside a sack, but fungus was produced in more than half of it [the sack]. I told the shop keeper to throw it away. And this is the exact phrase he used: ‘Nothing will happen, it is better if it is black [because it gets spoiled],’” said Prof. Dr. Mustafa Aslan from Ankara’s Gazi University.