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THE PHARMA REVIEW
(DECEMBER 2008) |
Confluence of Strategies for
the Development of Botanicals
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Pulok K. Mukherjee, S.
Ponnusankar, Santanu Bhadra, S. Pandit and M Venkatesh
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Abstract: The demand for botanicals has
increased worldwide and an unparalleled growth in the
sector is observed globally. The demand is estimated to
grow in the years to come fueled by the growth of sales
of herbal supplements and remedies according to several
surveys. To compete with the growing market, there is
urgency to expeditiously utilize and scientifically
validate more number of medicinal herbs. But with
increasing globalization, knowledge holders are
concerned about the erosion of traditional lifestyles
and cultures through external pressures, including loss
of their knowledge and reluctance of younger members of
the community to maintain traditional practices.
Although traditional medicine has long been used, there
is little systematic evidence regarding its safety and
efficacy. In this respect exploration of the botanicals
through international coordination with the development
of operational methodologies consisting of wide array of
standard operating procedures on screening, evaluation,
quality control and standardization of botanicals based
on their safety and efficacy is the need of the day for
development of medicine as well as food supplements from
natural resources.
Introduction
Over the centuries most of the countries and cultures
relies on the herbal products as the therapeutics which
can be traced back for at least 5000 years. Even today,
herbal source is the most reliable foundation to
discover the new chemical entities for the health care
products. The evidences of the utilization of herbals in
therapeutics are well documented in Indian system of
medicine. In the last few years, a progressive
impoverishment of this patrimony of secular knowledge
has occurred as a result of the changes in society,
which have been wrought by technological civilization.
Today WHO estimates about 60% of total global population
relies on the herbal products. Despite the golden
history and distinct benefits, there are certain
challenges in the development of herbal products and
bring it back to the mainstream medicine system. The
first and foremost issue is the assessment of quality,
safety and efficacy in line with different regulations
worldwide. In case of synthetic drugs there are well
established regulatory guidelines for global usage of
the chemical drugs. While for the botanicals the
regulatory status differs between countries. On the
other hand the less documentation and improper
scientific proofs are available for the botanicals used
in the traditional medicine. Various efforts have been
made globally to highlight various developments taking
place in the field of botanicals with respect to the
assessment of quality, safety and efficacy. The
significant developments that will be described through
the article includes all aspects of their evaluation to
neutralize the above mentioned challenges by
coordination and sharing of technology among the
countries for the global positioning of the herbals to
serve better.
For full text of this article contact the publisher on
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