Sustainable utilization of biodiversity, its conservation as well as those of associated knowledge systems is an urgent priority of action for the biodiversity-rich South Asian nations that are home to about 1/5th of the vascular plants of the world.
Metals and minerals are an important aspect of Siddha medicine—an ancient system of indigenous medicine practiced in south India. Formulations containing a significant proportion of heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic, copper, etc., have been prescribed since centuries with no reports of toxicity. Several such formulations are successfully used in the management of diseases such…
Toxcity risks and adverse effects Herbal medicine is not free from toxicity. A natural poison can kill as efficiently as a synthetic one. Many herbal remedies can cause harmful drug interactions when accidentally substituted or taken along with conventional medicines. Eg., Aristolochia fangchi when consumed as a substitute for an anti-density chinese herb has been…
While it is true that standardization attempts arose out of the need to deliver a quality-assured product, the situation has become all the more complex with the introduction of the so-called standardized herbal drugs.
Because of their natural diversity it is not possible to describe all herbs and herbal products as a single entity. The herbal raw material is prone to a lot of variation due to several factors, the important ones being the identity of the plants, seasonal variation, the ecotypic, genotypic and chemotypic variations, drying and storage…
Need for quality control The methods of quality control of pure drugs, either plant derived or synthetic, is today well established with standards covering authenticity, general quality, purity and assay. The situation regarding the quality of numerous herbal drugs used by manufacturers or sold directly to the public is by no means well established. From a…