Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
herbal
medicine
Introduction and Orientation
Contribution of herbal products in global market
In the raw form:
Over all international trade in medicinal plants and their products was US$ 60
billion in 2010.e.g. waters as sea water, thermal water and rose water.
Pure compounds:
Pravastatin (US$ 3.6 billion per year), is made through different
biotransformation processes from compactin by Streptomyces carbophilus and
Actinomadura sp.
Intermediates for drug:
Simvastiatin: A semi-synthetic derivative of lovastatin is simvastatin, a major
hypocholesterolemic drug, selling for US$ 7 billion per year before becoming
generic.
1- Identity
Investigation of herbal medicine drugs involves several points, include the
following:
a) Macroscopical examination:
This is very useful, especially for herbal medicines present in the powdered
forms. Microscopical examinations aims at:
- Identifying, or confirming the identity of herbal ingredients through
presence of their diagnostic elements.
- Confirming purity, through absence of foreign elements (presence of
which indicates adulteration).
- Distinguishing between closely related species usually by determining
certain microscopical numerical values such as stomatal index, palisade
ratio, vein islet number and veinlet termination number.
- Determination of percentage of some adulterants that contain certain
characteristic elements by the lycopodium method.
c) Histochemical tests
3- Efficacy
a) Cell, tissue and organ cultures
-It is modern alternative to animal experimentation.
-It is used for in vitro preliminary screening in drug discovery programs.
-Its advantages are direct observation of the action of agent on target cells and
that will actually reach internal tissue (after digestion, absorption, and first pass
hepatic effect.
b) Animal experiments
c) Clinical trials
4- Safety
a) Investigation of acute and chronic toxicity.
b) Determination of the duration of administration.
c) Identification of therapeutic and toxic doses.
d) Studying the effects during lactation and pregnancy.
e) Postmarketing surveillance. (Phase 4 clinical trial = Pharmacovigilance)
-adverse reaction reports.
-drug interaction reports.
-phototoxicity reports.
-hypersensitivity reports.
Dosage forms in herbal medicine