OVERVIEW

PRODUCT INFORMATION

CHEMICAL FORMULA AND STRUCTURE

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

References updated: 30 March 2018

• Zimmerman HJ. Unconventional drugs. Miscellaneous drugs and diagnostic chemicals. In, Zimmerman HJ. Hepatotoxicity: the adverse effects of drugs and other chemicals on the liver. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1999, pp. 731-4.

  (Expert review of hepatotoxicity published in 1999; several herbals are discussed, including comfrey, Jin Bu huan, germander, chaparral leaf, skullcap and valerian, but not hops).
• Seeff L, Stickel F, Navarro VJ. Hepatotoxicity of herbals and dietary supplements. In, Kaplowitz N, DeLeve LD, eds. Drug-induced liver disease. 3rd ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2013, pp. 631-58.

  (Review of hepatotoxicity of herbal and dietary supplements [HDS]; hops is not discussed).
• Hops. In, PDR for Herbal Medicines. 4th ed. Montvale, New Jersey: Thomson Healthcare Inc., 2007: pp. 448-52.

  (Compilation of short monographs on herbal medications and dietary supplements).
• Lindahl O, Lindwall L. Double blind study of a valerian preparation. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1989; 32: 1065-6. [PubMed: 2678162]

  (Controlled trial of valerian with lemon balm and hops vs lemon balm and hops alone in 27 subjects with sleep difficulties found better sleep quality with valerian; "no side effects were reported").
• Gyllenhaal C, Merritt SL, Peterson SD, Block KI, Gochenour T. Efficacy and safety of herbal stimulants and sedatives in sleep disorders. Sleep Med Rev 2000; 4: 229-51. [PubMed: 12531167]

  (Review of herbals used for sleep disorders; mentions that animal studies suggest that hops has sedative effects, but there has been little clinical study of its efficacy in humans).
• Morin CM, Koetter U, Bastien C, Ware JC, Wooten V. Valerian-hops combination and diphenhydramine for treating insomnia: a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. Sleep. 2005; 28: 1465-71. [PubMed: 16335333]

  (Controlled trial of a valerian-hops combination vs diphenhydramine vs placebo in 184 patients with mild insomnia found a "modest hypnotic effect" for the herbal combination; there were no serious adverse events and side effects were similar between placebo and the herbals).
• Wheatley D. Medicinal plants for insomnia: a review of their pharmacology, efficacy and tolerability. J Psychopharmacol 2005; 19: 414-21. [PubMed: 15982998]

  (Review of herbals used to treat insomnia; the sedative effect of hops was suspected because of "Hop-picker fatigue", but a study in mice and a subsequent clinical trial in 15 humans found no evidence for sedative or sleep inducing effects).
• Meolie AL, Rosen C, Kristo D, Kohrman M, Gooneratne N, Aguillard RN, Fayle R, et al.; Clinical Practice Review Committee; American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Oral nonprescription treatment for insomnia: an evaluation of products with limited evidence. J Clin Sleep Med 2005; 1: 173-87. [PubMed: 17561634]

  (Systematic review of efficacy of nonprescription treatments for insomnia states that there is no scientific evidence in support of either safety or efficacy of hops in treatment of insomnia).
• Salter S, Brownie S. Treating primary insomnia - the efficacy of valerian and hops. Aust Fam Physician 2010; 39: 433-7. [PubMed: 20628685]

  (Systematic review of literature on efficacy of valerian and hops in treating insomnia; 9 studies of valerian alone and 3 of the combination of valerian and hops found some evidence of benefit of valerian, but the separate efficacy or role of hops could not be assessed; adverse events were not discussed).
• Sarris J, Panossian A, Schweitzer I, Stough C, Scholey A. Herbal medicine for depression, anxiety and insomnia: a review of psychopharmacology and clinical evidence. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2011; 21: 841-60. [PubMed: 21601431]

  (Systematic review and summary of clinical evidence of efficacy of herbals used to treat anxiety, depression and insomnia; mentions that hops has been studied in humans, but does not rank the herbal as having evidence for efficacy in insomnia in humans).
• Drugs for insomnia. Treat Guidel Med Lett 2012; 10 (119): 57-60. [PubMed: 22777275]

  (Guidelines for therapy of insomnia; mentions herbal products that are claimed to have sleep inducing effects including valerian root, kava, chamomile tea, passionflower, hops, lemon balm, lavender and skull cap, but that there is no convincing evidence for their efficacy and that the purity of commercially available over-the-counter products is suspect).
• Bunchorntavakul C, Reddy KR. Review article: herbal and dietary supplement hepatotoxicity. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2013; 37: 3-17. [PubMed: 23121117]

  (Review of HDS associated hepatotoxicity; does not mention hops).
• Navarro VJ, Barnhart H, Bonkovsky HL, Davern T, Fontana RJ, Grant L, Reddy KR, et al. Liver injury from herbals and dietary supplements in the U.S. Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network. Hepatology 2014; 60:1399-408. [PMC free article: PMC4293199] [PubMed: 25043597]

  (Among 85 cases of HDS associated liver injury [not due to anabolic steroids] enrolled in a US prospective study between 2004 and 2013, none were attributed to hops).
• Chalasani N, Bonkovsky HL, Fontana R, Lee W, Stolz A, Talwalkar J, Reddy KR, et al.; United States Drug Induced Liver Injury Network. Features and outcomes of 899 patients with drug-induced liver injury: The DILIN Prospective Study. Gastroenterology 2015; 148: 1340-52. [PMC free article: PMC4446235] [PubMed: 25754159]

  (Among 899 cases of drug induced liver injury enrolled in a prospective database between 2004 and 2012, HDS were implicated in 145 [16%], none of which were due to hops: see Navarro [2014]).