Standardization of herbal formulation is essential in order to assess the quality of drugs for therapeutic value. According to WHO nearly 80% of populations of developing countries rely on traditional medicines. Standardized herbal products of consistent quality and containing well-defined constituents are required for reliable clinical trials and to provide consistent beneficial therapeutic effects. Pharmacological properties of an herbal formulation depend on phytochemical constituents present therein. Development of authentic analytical methods which can reliably profile the phytochemical composition, including quantitative analysis of market/bioactive compounds and other major constituents, is a major challenge to scientists. Quality control and standardization of herbal extracts are very important to protect the integrity of herbal extracts for their pharmaceutical quality and safety. It also forms a part of prerequisite for the reproducibility of the effect of the active ingredient from one batch to another. The World Health Organization in 1999 has given a detail protocol for the standardization of herbal drugs comprising of a single content, but very little literature is available for the standardization of poly-herbal formulation. WHO guidelines for assessment of the safety, efficacy and quality of herbal medicines as a prerequisite for global harmonization are of utmost importance.
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