A recent study has made people twitchy about ginseng because it caused abnormalities in rat embryos. That said, up to 10 percent of Asian women take it while pregnant (and that’s a lot of women) unfortunately nobody has documented whether that has had any weird side effects yet.
“Use with caution in early stages of pregnancy” seems to be the line right now but I imagine the “better safe than sorry” banners are being printed as we speak.
search: ginseng during pregnancy, ginseng and pregnant
I am also overwhelmed by the number of herbal teas that are not safe to drink. Or are they? I have heard camomile and chrysamthemum tea are not safe. Not sure if this is entirely true…but there is a long list of teas that I’m just not sure about.
Herbal teas are tricky because nobody test them. If you check out the tea post I have a list of what is commonly considered okay and what’s a no no: http://pregnantchicken.com/pregnant-chicken-blog/2010/11/9/can-i-drink-herbal-tea-when-pregnant.html