Review paper
The importance of immunological studies on Rhodiola rosea in the new effective and safe herbal drug discovery

Rhodiola rosea (roseroot, golden root) is the best known alpine-arctic medicinal plant species of the Family Crassulaceae, growing in Asia, Europe and North America. The rhizomes of this plant contain tonic, phytoadaptogen, antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anticancer, antiviral, anti-AD agents and are recommended to apply in many complementary therapies.

Rhodiola rosea is used in the traditional folk incl. Chinese medicine (known as Hongjingtian) and further studied in the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Beijing, China). Many actually “excellent- advertised!?” commercial dietary supplements consisting of R. rosea pulverized rhizomes/extracts/constituents are to order and buy via Internet and also in many drugstories world-wide.

The genetic diversity of the roseroot (great number of clones) demonstrated directly in the unstable quantitative production of the biologically active compounds, and potentially therefore also with dose-dependent differences in the immunological responses between aqueous and dried hydroalcoholic extracts of R. rosea or in the comparison of R. rosea with other Rhodiola sp. rhizomes have been shown and discussed in this review.

The studies suggest to inform and warn the European Medicines Agency and the all self-medicated patients, especially with serious illnesses e.g. cancer, about the risks and danger for the health, and life by the use of any R. rosea products.

The standardized, effective, and safe, pesticides-/contaminates-/microorganisms-free EU-/EMA-controlled R. rosea drug/drugs should be elaborated and sale only in drugstories.

In my opinion, the sale of the R. rosea/potential all “pseudo-herbal” dietary supplements in Internet should be officially prohibited by EMA as soon as possible.