Chinese Herbal Medicine Safflower (Flos carthami) Does Not Increase Bleeding Complications: A Population-based Cohort Study

Lih-Hwa Lin^{1, 2}, Jen-Huai Chiang^{1, 3}, Pei- Chi Chou¹, Po-Chi Liao⁴, San-Yuan Wu¹, Kao-Sung Tsai^{1, 5}, Huey-Yi Chen^{1, 3}, Yung-Hsiang Chen^{1, 6,} and Wen-Chi Chen^{1, 3,}

¹Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, School of Chinese Medicine, Graduate Institute of Integrated Medicine, Research Center for Chinese medicine & Acupuncture, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan

²Division of Chinese Medicine, An Nan Hospital, China Medical University, Tainan 709, Taiwan

³Management Office for Health Data, Departments of Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical Research, and Urology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan

⁴Department of Urology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan

⁵Management Office for Health Data, Departments of Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical Research, and Urology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan;Department of Applied Cosmetology, Master Program of Cosmetic Science, HUNGKUANG University, 433, Taiwan

⁶Management Office for Health Data, Departments of Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical Research, and Urology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan;Department of Psychology, College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung 41354, Taiwan

Cite this paper:
Lih-Hwa Lin, Jen-Huai Chiang, Pei- Chi Chou, Po-Chi Liao, San-Yuan Wu, Kao-Sung Tsai, Huey-Yi Chen, Yung-Hsiang Chen and Wen-Chi Chen. Chinese Herbal Medicine Safflower (Flos carthami) Does Not Increase Bleeding Complications: A Population-based Cohort Study. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2016; 4(2):108-114. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-4-2-7

Abstract

Safflower (Flos carthami; FC) has been used widely as a food additive, as a coloring and flavoring agent. It has also been used as a Chinese herbal medicine for improving blood flow and resolving thrombosis. This study investigated whether the risk of bleeding complications is increased among FC users. We conducted a retrospective study involving a test group that used FC and a control (non-FC users) group. The participants were aged 18 years and above, and were recruited from the 2000 – 2006. The participants were from beneficiaries of LHID2000. The FC cohort included participants who had been prescribed FC accumulated for more than 30 days, whereas the non-FC cohort included people who were not using FC prescriptions. The compared cohort individuals were randomly selected at a ratio of 1:4 and frequency matched by age, gender, and index year from FC user cohort group. The primary outcome was a new diagnosis of bleeding disorders including gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding (ICD-9-CM: 578.0, 578.1, 578.9), intracranial hemorrhage (ICD-9-CM: 432.0, 432.9), and blood transfusions (ICD-9-CM op-code: 99.0). The results showed that the proportions of participants with bleeding disorders were 2.6% and 2.3% in the FC and non-FC cohorts, respectively (P = 0.6675). In univariate and multivariate Cox’s proportional hazard regression models, the adjusted hazard ratio for bleeding disorders was 0.86 for the FC cohort relative to the non-FC cohort (P = 0.6094). In conclusion, the risk of bleeding complications was not increased among Chinese herbal medicine FC users.

Keywords:
bleeding disorder chinese herbal medicine safflower (Flos carthami) national health insurance database population-based cohort study

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