European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

STANDARDIZATION OF HERBAL MEDICINES

Dhiraj Tade*, Nikita Khandelwal, Saurabh Gajbhiye, Gauri Burje, S. G. Jawarkar

ABSTRACT

The term “herbal drugs” denotes plants or plant parts that have been converted into phytopharmaceuticals by means of simple processes involving harvesting, drying and storage. Herbal formulations are widely accepted as a therapeutic agents for several diseases. The development of authentic analytical methods which can reliably identifies the phytochemical composition, including quantitative analyses of marker/ bioactive compounds and other major constituents, is a major challenge to scientists. Standardization is an important parameter for the establishment of a consistent biological activity or simply to maintain the quality of production and manufacturing of herbal drugs. There is increasing awareness and general acceptability of the use of herbal drugs in today’s medical practice. Although, most of these applications are unorthodox, it is however a known fact that over 80% of the world population depends on herbal medicines and products for healthy living. 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. The challenge is innumerable and enormous, making the global herbal market unsafe. Herbal medicine on the need to establish quality parameters with the help of advanced analytical tools and well defined standardization methods in ensuring the safety of the global herbal market. The processes of good quality assurance and standardization of herbal medicines and products using various spectroscopic, chromatographic and electrophoretic methods were also discussed.

Keywords: spectroscopic, chromatographic and electrophoretic.