European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY: AN OUTLOOK ON TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AND GLOBALIZATION IN DRUG DISCOVERY

Virendra Kushwaha, Pooja Agrawal*, Sameer Siddiqui, Nasreen Fatma Khan and Ranju Kushwaha

ABSTRACT

Ethnopharmacology is a highly varied approach to drug discovery which includes the observations, description, and experimental investigation of indigenous drugs and their biological activities contributing to the discovery of natural products with biological activity. Our country is an ancient heritage of various traditional medicines history shows missionaries in different colonies initially used pharmacologically active plants and till now about half of the drugs approved were based on natural products. Traditional medicines are often complex herbal mixtures and multiple compounds are extracted providing a poly-pharmacological approach to drug discovery this approach changes the concept of one disease-one target-one drug. Indian Materia-medica has abundant information on medicinal plants and also has information regarding folk traditions and their therapeutic importance. With the global commercialization and use of intercultural knowledge and information exchange patient have the choice between different medicinal systems available for their health care needs. Some remedies may have beneficial properties while others can cause adverse reactions. The emergence of biodiversity plays an important role in globalization. We conclude that ethnopharmacology is the holistic approach to drug research and development by using the latest technologies to discover lead compounds or bioactive substances. Therefore, high standards confirming work on the safety and effectiveness of folk medicine and traditional medicine are needed. Sound scientific data for many commercialized medicines or health products are still lacking. Therefore, a much more multidisciplinary scientific approach is required to local and traditional medicine.

Keywords: Ethnopharmacology, Traditional medicines, Drugs, Globalization.