ABSTRACT
When products from more than one herb (plant) are used in a medicinal preparation, it is generally considered as a polyherbal formulation. In most of the cases, products from many plants (along with or without nonplant materials) are used as ingredients in a polyherbal formulation. These polyherbal formulations contain products from plant species as ingredients with specic methods of preparation. Polyherbal formulations could be better than single chemical entity drugs in many medical conditions. The multivalent and multitarget actions of mixtures of phytochemicals could provide therapeutic superiority compared with single compound drugs in the treatment of DM. Now, it is increasingly recognized that, in many complex disease conditions (e.g., DM, arthritis, liver diseases, and old-age-related diseases), combination therapy is more suitable compared with monosubstance therapy. It is considered that complex physiological and pathophysiological processes of the body can be inuenced more effectively with less adverse side effects by a combination of several low-dose compounds than by a single high-dose compound. Low doses of several phytochemicals acting on multiple targets involved in a complex disease such as DM may prove better and safer compared with a high dose of a pure chemical entity drug acting on a major target. This gives relevance to phytomedicines (generally containing standardized extracts/ fractions/crude homogenates). In this chapter, the advantages of rational polyherbal formulations are projected with an emphasis to develop rational and standardized polyherbal/combination medicines for DM.
