Page 40 - Pharmacognosy-II (06-PG 303)

Introduction: Herbal medicine is one of the oldest forms of health care. Almost every culture

around the world has its own contributions to herbals and uses of food as medicine.

The demand for herbals has risen considerably in the last few years.

1. But are the pharmacists and physicians prepared for this?
2. Are they trained to answer all questions?
This demand brings with it about uses, constituents (including the minors, water soluble materials,
etc…), pharmacological actions, indications, side-effects, potential herb-drug interaction, drug-
supplement interaction, doses, dose levels, duration of use, stable dosage form, herbal preparations,
phytopharmaceuticals, making of the tea, possible adulterants, storage, and authentication.
About 80 % of the world’s population still relies on herbals as recorded by the World Health
Organization (WHO) and several phytopharmaceutic and phytotherapeutic preparations have
advanced to widespread use in modern times.

Each plant has its own Latin binomial name (usually accurate and understood around the world) and
numerous names and synonyms. Therefore, herbal products, preparations, etc… should be identified
with the proper Latin name, {correct genus, species, variety, and even chemo-variety (chemical races)}
and the most common synonym, in order to obtain the same chemical and medicinal characteristics for
a particular herbal. In addition, the active principle or principles in a given herbal may be found in
certain specific part (s) or the whole plant. Therefore, the used plant part (s) should be clearly indicated
in herbal product or preparation, as well as geographical sources and locality.

The herbal drug contains a wide variety of compounds from various classes as:

1. Primary metabolites:
1. Carbohydrates (as cellulose, starch, pectin, etc..).
2. Fixed oils, Proteins, etc..

3. Secondary metabolites: as alkaloids, glycosides, essential oils, poly-phenol compounds,
steroids, etc….) that may have certain specific pharmacological activity.
All these constituents act with each other by certain mechanism (s) to give the final pharmacological
actions of the herbal. This means that the therapeutic action of the herbal is due to the combined action

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