AN OVERVIEW ON THE LACK OF PROPER EVALUATION AND STANDARDISED ANALYTICAL METHODS OF CURRENTLY MARKETED HERBAL PRODUCTS: A REMEDIAL APPROACH.
Journal Title: International Journal of Research in Pharmacology & Pharmacotherapeutics (IJRPP) - Year 2012, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
Traditional medicines have been used in chronic and potential life-threatening diseases, and they are widely used by the young, aged people for health maintenance. Herbal therapy is famous as a traditional medical practice, based on the use of plants and plant extracts. World’s multicultural society is composed of various communities with the practice of traditional medicine, which is influenced by mostly usage of medicinal herbs and herbal products along with synthetic drugs for major diseases. In this current review, the author has made an attempt to emphasize the lack of proper evaluation and standardised analytical methods for medicinal herbs and herbal products. It is also suggested in this review on handling safety issues and concerns of herbal product usage on a larger community. Chronic usage of these adulterated traditional medicines which contain synthetic drug contaminants, steroids and heavy metals may result in secondary health complications, deficiencies, adverse herb interactions and herb-drug interactions leading to complications of regular body functions. It is recommended to estimate the active drug content uniformity based on sustainable harvesting of selected local sources of herbs and evaluating the current trends of qualitative and quantitative aspects of active drugs in selected herbs and their safety. It is also suggested to compare and correlate with standardized methods of regular time to time variations of active growing herbs, and a continuous research has to be conducted to impart regulations on ethical practice, good manufacturing practices and quality control of herbal products for appropriate product registration and licensing. This review showed important reasons to motivate the regulatory authorities in improving traditional health care policies and research methodologies on quality, safety by appropriate or more suitable means of evaluation of herbal medicinal products. It is concluded that the national integrated research program may be conducted in collaboration with local suppliers/distributors on the safety issues and the legal supply of herbal medicines, and it may be reassessed by evaluating the clinical trials on indigenous traditional medicinal plants and herbal products to ensure their safety and efficacy.
Authors and Affiliations
Lokesh V S Bontha
Keywords
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