Standardization of herbal preparations: Scientific approach for conventional herbal medicine.

Abstract

Herbal medicine is still the mainstay of about 80% of the world population for their primary healthcare. Plant based medicines are accepted as therapeutic agents for many diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases, infections etc. Currently, herbal medicine is increasingly becoming popular among the developed countries with the more apparent manifestations of side effects of modern drugs. Herbal drugs have intrinsic worth over modern drugs for their perceived efficacy, low cost and low incidence of side effects. The desired benefits of herbal drugs rely on the correct plant material, quality of preparation, correct dosage, time period of administration etc. Phytochemicals or the active ingredients responsible for the bioactivities greatly vary with genetic variation, climatic and environmental factors, method of preparation, storage etc. (Thus, maintaining the quality and consistency of herbal formulations has become a challenge. Evaluation of a herbal product does not necessarily require purifying the active constituent unlike in allopathic medicine. Instead the best approach would be the analysis of the active ingredients in the herbal mixture and maintaining the quality and purity of such preparations by standardization. In most countries, herbal products are formulated and launched to the market without proper scientific evaluation. Though it is believed that herbal products are less toxic, untested preparations could lead to severe side effects, especially where substitution or adulterations are encountered. Thus, it is evident that the herbal medicine industry requires strict guidelines and regulations to maintain the quality standards of herbal preparations. In 1992, WHO recognized this issue and formulated a set of guidelines for quality control and standardization of medicinal plants (WHO,1993).