This volume is the only publication in English of the complete work of Commission E. Other authors and editors have included complete monographs or fragments of Commission E monographs in some publications or have alluded to them throughout the text of their work. Most notable of the latter in the U.S. is Professor Varro E. Tyler's best-selling book, Herbs of Choice: The Therapeutic Use of Phytomedicinals (1994), the first book in English in relatively widespread circulation that draws extensively from the Commission E monographs. Using his facility with the German language and his intimate knowledge of pharmacognosy, Prof. Tyler includes the recommended Commission E dosages for approved uses for numerous herbs and phytomedicines discussed in this useful volume. He also includes relevant safety data from the Contraindications and Side Effects sections, as well as other special warnings as needed.

In 1992, the British Herbal Medicine Association published the British Herbal Compendium Volume I , a companion volume to the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia (1990). The BHC contains monographs on 84 herbs that are described in the BHP. Forty-nine of the BHC monographs include sections containing translations of monographs from Commission E. In 1994, CRC Press and MedPharm Publishers printed the English translation of the excellent German work Teedrogen (Tea Drugs) by Professor Dr. Max Wichtl. The new volume was translated and edited by Norman G. Bissett as Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals and included excerpts from 116 Commission E monographs.

Two recent books from Germany published in English are intended for health professionals: Phytotherapy in Paediatrics , by Commission E member Professor Heinz Schilcher, contains English translations of 100 Commission E monographs as well as 15 monographs published by ESCOP, the herbs in the monographs having been mentioned in the text (Schilcher, 1997). Prof. Schilcher and leading pediatricians have selected the 100 most important medicinal plants and this "handbook for physicians and pharmacists" has now been translated into six languages.

Another recently published book for health professionals is Rational Phytotherapy: A Physician's Guide to Herbal Medicine , by Volker Schulz, Rudolf Hänsel, and Varro E. Tyler (1997). This book often comments on early findings versus the later, more clinically oriented findings of Commission E. However, it also includes considerable review of the clinical studies supporting the safe and effective (rational) use of a number of leading phytomedicines used in Germany, as well as summaries of therapeutic categories for which some herbs have been approved by Commission E.

There have been several reference books published recently that have included data from the Commission E monographs. These include the extensive Encyclopedia of Common Ingredients Used in Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics 2nd edition , by Albert Y. Leung and Steven Foster (1996). Of the 500-plus herbs monographed in this useful volume, many refer to the herb's approved uses according to Commission E. The authors based their references to Commission E on a previous draft version of this book. Similarly, the American Herbal Products Association's Botanical Safety Handbook (1997), edited by Michael McGuffin, Christopher Hobbs, Roy Upton, and Alicia Goldberg, used an earlier draft of this work as one of the 30 general references upon which it relied in assessing the relative safety of some 600 herbs sold in the U.S. herbal market.

Further, the 1998 - 1999 edition of Poisoning & Toxicology Compendium , by Jerrold B. Leikin, M.D., and Frank P. Paloucek, Pharm.D., published by Lexi-Comp Inc. and the American Pharmaceutical Association, contains a section on the safety and toxicological aspects of herbal medicines, with tables on herb-drug interactions and herbs contraindicated in pregnancy and lactation based on this translation of the Commission E monographs (Blumenthal, 1997).

In the area of popular literature, two herbal best sellers were published in summer 1997 that contain data based on this book. In Green Pharmacy (Duke, 1997), renowned economic botanist James A. Duke, Ph.D., alludes to the Commission E approvals of numerous herbs contained in his book. Consumer health author Jean Carper's Miracle Cures (Harper Collins, 1997) also refers to the government-approved status of the therapeutic benefits of many of the herbs and phytomedicines covered in her book. Both authors were provided early drafts of these translations.

Incidentally, Prof. H. Schilcher, Vice President of Commission E, was the first author to publish Commission E monographs in the German literature with the publication of his book, Phytotherapy in Paediatrics , originally published in 1988. His German book Little Handbook for the Most Important Herbs in Self-Medication , based principally on the Commission E work of which he has played an integral part, will be published in 1998. Prof. Schilcher's Little Medicinal Plant Dictionary has sold over 96,000 copies and contains two chapters based on uses and dosages of herbs approved by Commission E.