ABSTRACT
The heightened interest in alternative therapies has led motivated patients to try herbals and dietary supplements (HDS), for indolent to serious hepatic diseases. The therapies remain controversial as there are little to no federal or internal oversight of their use or production, nor are there consistently reproducible studies to gauge their efficacy. The dose, concentration, and forms of these therapies vary not only between manufacturers, but also from "bottle-to-bottle" and the subsequent absorption in the body can therefore be vastly irregular. The intended use of these supplements has ranged from treating viral hepatitis, to fatty liver, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), hepatic encephalopathy (HE), primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), Wilson's disease, hemachromatosis, alcoholic liver disease, among others. This chapter presents a lists of HDS used for the treatment of various diseases. Some of HDS are Milk Thistle, Green tea, Caffeine, Niacin, Zinc, Vitamins and Iron.
