The role of herbal medicines in health care quality and the related challenges (original) (raw)
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Quality of herbal medicines: Challenges and solutions
Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2012
The popularity of herbal medicines has risen worldwide. This increase in usage renders safety issues important. Many adverse events of herbal medicines can be attributed to the poor quality of the raw materials or the finished products. Different types of herbal medicines are associated with different problems. Quality issues of herbal medicines can be classified into two categories: external and internal. In this review, external issues including contamination (e.g. toxic metals, pesticides residues and microbes), adulteration and misidentification are detailed. Complexity and non-uniformity of the ingredients in herbal medicines are the internal issues affecting the quality of herbal medicines. Solutions to the raised problems are discussed. The rigorous implementation of Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) would undoubtedly reduce the risk of external issues. Through the use of modern analytical methods and pharmaceutical techniques, previously unsolved internal issues have become solvable. Standard herbal products can be manufactured from the standard herbal extracts.
Herbal Medicines: Prospects and Constraints
Modern Phytomedicine, 2006
Herbs and herbal preparations have been used to treat ailments throughout the history of humanity. A World Health Organization (WHO) survey has reported that about 70-80% of the world's population rely chiefly on traditional medicines, mainly of herbal sources, in their primary health care. Towards the end of the twentieth century herbal medicine became more mainstream throughout the world, partly as a result of the recognition of the value of traditional medicinal systems, particularly of Asian origin. We have also seen an increase in the popularity and use of natural remedies in developed countries, including herbs, herbal medicines, over-the-counter health foods, neutraceuticals, harbal medicinal products. The use of herbal medicines is especially prevalent in primary health care and for many chronic diseases. Overall, the world market for herbal medicine and products is increasing rapidly, especially for Chinese, German, and Indian herbal medicines. Major problems associated with herbal medicine are the lack of standardization, consistency, toxicity, safety, quality, and, in some countries, regulations. The correct identification of herbal materials and pharmacologically active constituents, standardization, pharmacological basis of efficacy, toxicity, clinical and nonclinical trials, adopting Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Sourcing Practices (GSP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), and strict implementation of regulation are needed to improve the acceptability, quality, and possible integration of herbal medicines with modern medicine for the effective management of health problems. These issues are discussed in this chapter.
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.
Need and scope of standardization of herbal medicines -A review
International Journal of Green Pharmacy, 2021
There is increasing awareness and general acceptability of the use of herbal drugs in today's medical practice. The starting materials for about one-half of the medicines we use today come from natural sources. This rise in the use of herbal product has also given rise to various forms of abuse and adulteration of the products leading to consumers and manufacturers disappointment and in some instances fatal consequences. Herbal drug technology is used for converting botanical materials into medicines, where standardization and quality control with proper integration of modern scientific techniques and traditional knowledge is important. For global harmonization WHO specific guidelines for the assessment of the safety, efficacy and quality of herbal medicines are of utmost importance. Standardization of drug means confirmation of its identity, quality, and purity throughout all phases of its cycle. This review seeks to need and scope of standardization processes of herbal medicine for good quality assurance.
Quality Aspects of Herbal Drugs and its Formulation
International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology
To evaluate a high-quality medicine, herbal compositions must be standardised. The total of all aspects that directly or indirectly influence the safety, efficacy, and acceptance of a drug product is the quality of a herbal drug. The field of herbal drugs and formulations is developing quickly nowadays, and there is still much to learn about the standardisation of these products. However, the lack of a standardised parameter hurts herbal treatment. The primary constraints are the absence of standards for raw materials, processing techniques, and finished goods, product formulas, and absence of quality control standards. To assure the quality, safety, and effectiveness of herbal medicine using contemporary methods, it is required to measure the regulation of herbal medicine.
Need & Scope of Standardization of herbal medicines -A review
There is increasing awareness and general acceptability of the use of herbal drugs in today's medical practice. The starting materials for about one-half of the medicines we use today come from natural sources. This rise in the use of herbal product has also given rise to various forms of abuse and adulteration of the products leading to consumers and manufacturers disappointment and in some instances fatal consequences. Herbal drug technology is used for converting botanical materials into medicines, where standardization and quality control with proper integration of modern scientific techniques and traditional knowledge is important. For global harmonization WHO specific guidelines for the assessment of the safety, efficacy and quality of herbal medicines are of utmost importance. Standardization of drug means confirmation of its identity, quality and purity throughout all phases of its cycle. This review seeks to need & scope of standardization processes of herbal medicine for good quality assurance.
Quality, Safety, and Efficacy of Herbal Products through Regulatory Harmonization
Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science, 2011
n a t u r a l h e a l t h p r o d u c t s 45 Quality of herbal medicines is a great concern to consumers and regulators throughout the world. The quality of herbal medicines mainly depends on regulatory requirements of respective countries. To probe the role of regulatory standards and their harmonization in improving quality, safety, and efficacy, legislation on herbal medicines of different countries was analyzed. Results show that different countries have been changing and upgrading quality re-quirements over the last few years, and those who have no legislation presently have started framing suitable legislation. Like other countries, India has also adopted prudent measures to improve the quality of herbal medicines. Though there is a general trend to incorporate stringent measures worldwide, there is little initiative to harmonize regulations, which is essential for providing quality herbal medicines globally.
WHO Guidelines for Standardization of Herbal Drugs
Herbal drugs are being used as medicines from ancient period. The increased use of herbal drugs, and concerns over their safety and efficacy have certainly augmented the need of standardization of these herbal drugs. WHO has set up guidelines for standardization of these drugs, which are used as a standard by the majority of countries. The standardization includes the external (macroscopy/microscopy) as well as internal examination/ash values, extractive values and many other parameters to identify, authentify and study its chemical composition. Standardization of the medicinal plants will ensure indirectly that the plants are conserved for their medicinal and nutritive value. Standardization confirms the safety of the medicinal plant but efficacy has to be judged clinically or in the laboratory. There is a thin line between efficacy and the presence of chemical compounds in the drug. The major hurdle in standardization of the batch to batch variation in the plant compounds. Addition of finer analytical methods of the chemical compounds may help to minimize the variation and give a better resolution of the plant drug. Importance of toxicological examination has increased manifolds as contamination can occurs at various stages, from collection, storage, analysis or processing to extraction of active principles. These parameters should be recorded for years together; their database should be generated, recorded and analyzed statistically to see the difference in quality and quantity of the chemical compounds. Keywords: Standardization, herbal drug, botanical, pharmacological, toxicological, parameters
Review Article: Standardization and Evaluation of Herbal Drugs is Need of the Hour in Present Era
2020
The herbal preparations are being into used from the primordial time throughout the world. Now, maximum people are shifted towards the Ayurveda for the treatment of any affliction. Herbs are also used as side products in the preparation of synthetic medicine. Traditional system of medicine has taken over the place worldwide, hence majority of products are formulated. The increased use of herbal drug, now concerning with its purity and quality of herbal raw material as well as finished product. Purity of the herbal constituent is the main problem faced by the herbal industries. To overcome this issue, WHO has published the certain guidelines for the standardization of the herbal material. To ensure the efficacy, purity and quality control processes, the personnel should himself supervise the standardization processes with uniform rules. The review represents the standardization parameters with the standards value of quality, purity and efficacy.