ABSTRACT
Herbal medicines are the most ancient form of health remedies known to mankind. In spite of the great advances achieved in modern medicine, plants still make an important contribution to healthcare, and several specic herbal extracts have demonstrated to be efcacious for specic conditions. Moreover, at least 120 distinct chemical substances derived from plants are considered as important drugs currently in use, and several other drugs are simple synthetic modications of natural products (Fabricant and Farnsworth, 2001). In reality, it must also be stated that certain tightly held beliefs within traditional medicine have created an environment where strong belief “counts” more than the application of scientic principles (Cordell, 2015). Plants can be regarded as “living factories” producing a variety of chemical compounds, including primary metabolites important for the growth of the plants (amino acids, proteins, and carbohydrates) and secondary metabolites (alkaloids, terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, polyketides, avonoids, and saccharides). All these components may work together to deliver a synergistic effect in the nished product. Certain herbal medicines, because of the complexity of their chemical content and the variety of bioactivities, can provide the polypharmacology that orthodox drugs cannot deliver. Natural products are rarely evaluated in the well-controlled clinical trials that are required to receive approval by regulatory bodies and, therefore, tend
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 247 Herbal Medicinal Products ....................................................................................248 Phytotherapy ..........................................................................................................249 Quality Control ......................................................................................................250 Variability ............................................................................................................... 251
Active Ingredients: Specic Parameters (Extracts) ........................................... 252 Finished Products: Specic Parameters ............................................................ 252 Case Studies ...................................................................................................... 253
Safety and Efcacy ................................................................................................254 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 255 References ..............................................................................................................256
