Drug & supplement interaction

Gentian + Verteporfin

Verteporfin brand name: Visudyne.

No Known Interaction
Medically reviewed by · Updated July 2026 · Pair last verified Sep 20, 2026
The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Gentian and Verteporfin in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first. Additionally, although there is no interaction, the two are separately associated with some of the same side effects, which would make a new symptom harder to attribute to one or the other.

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Interaction report

Gentian and Verteporfin

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Verteporfin and Gentian in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — there is often limited research on supplements and herbal products, especially around drug interactions.

If you decide to take both, the practical routine is simple: add one new thing at a time and note the date you started it. If the combination is going to disagree with you, it usually shows in the first days to a couple of weeks — and a start date turns “I’ve been feeling off” into something a pharmacist can actually work with. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Gentian safety at a glance

Gentian overall Use caution Generally tolerated in small amounts by healthy adults, but it can upset the stomach and is not well studied at high doses.
Pregnancy Avoid Not enough safety data, and traditional cautions exist, so it is best avoided during pregnancy.
Breastfeeding Avoid There is not enough reliable safety information, so avoid use while breastfeeding.

Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Verteporfin and Gentian? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›
How we checked

Why No Interaction Is Listed for Verteporfin

Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes, not just single drug names. Verteporfin is filed under 2 classifications — including oral drugs. Gentian has documented interactions with 1 drug class — the most serious being antihypertensive drugs (moderate) — and none of Verteporfin’s classifications are among them.

Classification data comes from our licensed Natural Medicines dataset. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded there, so this describes how the check was run — it is not a safety guarantee.

Keep it in perspective

Gentian Does Interact With Other Medications

Gentian has 172 moderate known drug interactions in our database — Verteporfin isn’t one of them. If you take anything else, check it against the full list below.

Moderate 172 No known interaction 2,658 (incl. Verteporfin)
Taking anything else?

Check Another of Your Medications Against Gentian

Covers the 2,830 medications we’ve checked against Gentian. Pick one to open its full report.

What to actually watch for

No Interaction Found — But Data Suggests Gentian and Verteporfin May Share a Side Effect

This is not an interaction. Neither one changes how your body handles the other, and nothing here says they react together. What our sources do show is that each has separately been linked to the effects below — so taking both can make those effects more likely to turn up, and harder to pin on one or the other if they do.

  • Nausea Additional detail

    Gentian

    “Orally, gentian root, in combination with other herbs, has been reported to cause gastrointestinal adverse effects. Gastrointestinal intolerance occurred in patients with cancer-associated anorexia who took gentian tincture 1 mL three times daily, in conjunction with turmeric 1 gram and ginger 1 gram twice daily, for 14 days.”

    Gentian · Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, reported in anorexia.

    3 sources cited
    1. 374. Neubauer N, Marz RW. Placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, clincal trial with Sinupret sugar coated tablets on the basis of a therapy with antibiotics and decongestant nasal drops in acute sinusitis. Phytomedicine 1994;1:177-81.
    2. 379. Marz RW, Ismail C, Popp MA. Action profile and efficacy of a herbal combination preparation for the treatment of sinusitis. Wien Med Wochenschr 1999;149:202-8.
    3. 96263. Sanatani M, Younus J, Stitt L, et al. Tolerability of the combination of ginger (Zingiber officinalis), gentian (Gentiana lutea) and turmeric (Curcuma longa) in patients with cancer-associated anorexia. J Complement Integr Med. 2015;12(1):57-60.

    Verteporfin

    Listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Verteporfin. Read the label on DailyMed ›

Reported for Gentian but not commonly for Verteporfin: vomiting, diarrhea, bloating or gas and reduced appetite.

Effects for Verteporfin come from the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of its FDA label; effects for Gentian come from the Natural Medicines adverse-effect record, quoted above. Wording is matched across sources by our own clinical vocabulary, so treat this as a prompt to pay attention, not a diagnosis.

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Verteporfin

This page covers Gentian only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Verteporfin page lists 18 supplements it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: Activated Charcoal (major), Coffee Charcoal (moderate), Dimethylsulfoxide (dmso) (moderate), European Mandrake (moderate) and Glucomannan (moderate).

By severity: 1 major · 8 moderate · 9 minor.

From our pharmacist’s overview on the Verteporfin page

“Verteporfin (Visudyne) is infused into a vein, then activated with a laser to seal leaky blood vessels in the eye, and one entry here warrants real caution. Activated charcoal, the only major-rated interaction of the 18 on file, can strip many drugs from the body even when they were never swallowed, so I would not use it around a treat…”

Reviewed by 2 · Jul 18, 2026

Open the Verteporfin interaction page

One more smart check

Taking Gentian as Part of a Dietary Supplement Product? Check It for Interactions

We hold 749 real supplement products containing Gentian, each one broken down to its full ingredient list — and combination products often carry several ingredients besides Gentian. Even though Gentian itself has no known interaction with Verteporfin, another ingredient on your label might. Find your product and we’ll check every ingredient on its label:

How much people look this up

Where Gentian and Verteporfin Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Gentian
Top 25%

#239 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today
Medication Verteporfin
Steady interest

#1,864 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?
  • Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
  • Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Gentian reference on this page ↓
  • Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 20, 2026. The Gentian and Verteporfin records this page draws on were last updated July 10, 2026.
  • What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.
Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by .
Supplement

About Gentian

What is Gentian?

  • Loss of appetite
  • Indigestion and bloating
  • Digestive bitter tonic
  • Stomach upset
  • Sluggish digestion

Gentian is a very bitter root traditionally used to stimulate appetite and ease mild digestive complaints, often as part of "bitters" before meals. The evidence is mostly traditional and preliminary, and while short-term use of normal amounts appears generally well tolerated in healthy adults, anyone with ulcers, reflux, or who is pregnant should be cautious and check with a pharmacist or doctor first.

Gentiana lutea · Gentianaceae · Root and rhizome · Tinctures, liquid extracts, teas, bitters, capsules, dried root

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Gentian is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Gentian record says about it on its own.

Gentian: dosing

There is no official, standardized dose for gentian, and products vary widely in strength. Traditional use involves small amounts of a tincture, extract, or tea taken shortly before meals.Because formulations differ, the safest approach is to follow the directions on the product label and not exceed the suggested amount. A pharmacist can help you choose a reasonable product and dose, and can review it against your other medicines and health conditions.

From our Gentian monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Gentian monograph & all interactions
Medication

About Verteporfin Injection

What Is Verteporfin Injection Used For?

Brand name: Visudyne

Visudyne (verteporfin for injection) is used to treat a specific type of abnormal blood vessel growth under the retina called predominantly classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) — new, leaky vessels that form beneath the central part of the retina. It is approved for three underlying causes of this condition.

Visudyne is indicated when CNV is caused by age-related macular degeneration (AMD), pathologic myopia (severe nearsightedness that damages the eye), or presumed ocular histoplasmosis (an eye condition linked to a fungal infection). It is not indicated for the predominantly occult (hidden) form of CNV, where there is not enough evidence to support its use.

See full Verteporfin Injection drug information
Keep checking

Other Drugs & Gentian

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Gentian — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major
172Moderate
0Minor
2,657No known interaction
172 Moderate 2,657 No interaction
Moderate

172 interactions

Showing 60 of 172 moderate interactions — see all 172 on the Gentian page.

No interaction 2,657 drugs checked — show the list

We also checked Gentian against these medications and found no known interaction in our sources. Open any page to confirm.

Showing the 60 most looked-up of 2,657 medications checked with no known interaction — see the full Gentian list.

See the full Gentian interactions page
See every supplement checked against Verteporfin, ranked by severity
Evidence & sources

Gentian References

The 5 references that drive our Gentian monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

  1. Neubauer N, Marz RW. Placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, clincal trial with Sinupret sugar coated tablets on the basis of a therapy with antibiotics and decongestant nasal drops in acute sinusitis. Phytomedicine 1994;1:177-81.
  2. Marz RW, Ismail C, Popp MA. Action profile and efficacy of a herbal combination preparation for the treatment of sinusitis. Wien Med Wochenschr 1999;149:202-8.
  3. Uncini Manganelli RE, Chericoni S, Baragatti B. Ethnopharmacobotany in Tuscany: plants used as antihypertensives. Fitoterapia 2000;71:S95-100. PubMed
  4. Baragatti B, Calderone V, Testai L, et al. Vasodilator activity of crude methanolic extract of Gentiana kokiana Perr. et Song. (Gentianaceae). J Ethnopharmacol 2002;79:369-72. PubMed
  5. Sanatani M, Younus J, Stitt L, et al. Tolerability of the combination of ginger (Zingiber officinalis), gentian (Gentiana lutea) and turmeric (Curcuma longa) in patients with cancer-associated anorexia. J Complement Integr Med. 2015;12(1):57-60.

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Taking Gentian and Verteporfin Together: Common Questions

Is it safe to take Gentian with Verteporfin?
We do not list a known interaction between Gentian and Verteporfin. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.
Do Gentian and Verteporfin have any of the same side effects?
Yes — our sources link each of them separately to one of the same effects. That is not an interaction: neither changes how your body handles the other. It does mean that if one of those effects turns up, it can be harder to tell which one is behind it. They are listed on this page with the source behind each.
How was the Gentian and Verteporfin combination checked?
Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes. Verteporfin is filed under 2 classifications, and Gentian has documented interactions with 1 drug class — none of Verteporfin's classifications are among them. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded in our dataset, so this describes how the check was run rather than guaranteeing safety.
Does Gentian interact with any other medications?
Yes. Gentian has 172 documented drug interactions in our database — Verteporfin is simply not one of them. If you take anything else, it is worth checking each one; they are all listed on this page.
Does Verteporfin interact with any supplements?
Yes. Verteporfin has documented interactions with 18 supplements in our database — Gentian is not one of them. The Verteporfin interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Where next

Keep Exploring

Gentian monograph Uses, safety profile, and every drug interaction in one place Verteporfin Injection drug information The full plain-English guide to this medication Verteporfin supplement interactions Every supplement checked against Verteporfin, ranked by severity Supplement interaction checker Check any supplement or product against your medications Browse medications A–Z Every drug we’ve checked against herbs & supplements References The 5 citations behind this page Ask a pharmacist Free, personal answer from our licensed team

Still Have a Question About Verteporfin and Gentian?

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.