INTRODUCTION:

Herbal drug it means it refer to the green stock or part of plant which are used in treatment of various disease. Herbal drug help to prevent the disease and support to the good health. Herbal drug are the oldest for the health care. Who has set the guidelines for safety, efficacy, quality of herbal drug (Shang, 2000). Now a days more than 80% of people used herbal drug for major healthcare. Herbal drug are the common elements in ayurvedic, naturopathy and other medicines system. Generally herb are considered as a safe due to they are in natural origin (Sehgal, 2003). The herbal drugs are more and more consumed by people without any prescription. It shows greater effect with less or no side effects. Herbal drug included part of plant like seed, leaves, stems, bark, root, flower, different extract for the medicinal use.

Herbal products shows beneficial agents like antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anti-ageing, antifertility, sedative, antidepressants, anti-inflammatory (Feng, Wang, Zhu, Feng, and Li H and Tsao, 2011). Different combination of herbs shows very less side effects and more therapeutic effect.

Advantages:

1) Cost effective

2) More efficacy and potency

3) More protection

4) Less side effects

5) Recyclable

6) Increases tolerance.

Disadvantage:

1) It is not able to clear the rapid illness or in case of accident.

2) Not proper standardization.

3) Risk with self-dosing in accurate manner.

4) Show onset of action.

Pharmacological Actions of Herbal Drugs:

1. Anti-inflammatory activity:

Achillea millefolium L. is a perennial herb native to Europe and highly recognized in traditional medicine for it anti-inflammatory properties. The plant has been traditionally used for treatments of irritated skin, burns, swollen, wounds and the plant is used externally.

2. Anti-diabetic Activity:

From earliest period, many people are using herbal plants as home remedies for treatment of diabetes. There are various herbal plants with Anti-diabetic activity. The variety of herbal plants having Anti-diabetic activity are Babul (Acacia arabica), bael (Aegle marmelose), ash ground (Benincasa hispida), Beet root (Beta vulgaris), bitter apple (Citrallus colocynth is), Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globules), purging nut (Jatropha curcas), Mango (Mangnifera indica), Kiwach (Mucuna pruriens), Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), methi (Trigonela foenum graecum), and ghrita kumara, (Aloe vera).

3. Anti-cancer activity:

Medicinal products exhibiting anti-cancer activity continue to be the subject extensive research aimed at the development of drugs for the treatment of different human tumors. The medicinal plants used for the treatment of cancer are Alangium lamarki, Celastrus paniculatus, ficus glomerate, ficus racemosa, Ocimum baslicum, Tylophora indica, Wrightia tinctoria, Cantharanthus roseus, Embelia ribes (Rodeiro, Magarino, O, and Garrido, 2008). The extracts of herbal plants used for treatment of breast cancer is Colla cornu, Radix angelicae, Buthus martensi, Radix paeoniae, Radix glycyrrhizae, Squama manitis, Tuber curcumae (Lalla, 2005)

4. Analgesic activity:

The extracts of Bougainvilla spectabilis, Chelidonium majus, Dalbergia lanceolaria, Glaucium grandiflorum, Polyalthia longifolia, Stylasanthes fructicosa, Ficus glomerata, Glaucium paucilobum, Sida acuta, toona ciliate, Zataria multiflora and Zingiber zerumbet are used as analgesic agents.This extracts of herbal plants shows Analgesic activity.

5. Anti-ageing activity:

Cell membranes are particularly susceptible to the hostility of free radicals. When the nucleus is injured, the cell loses its ability to replicate itself. The impaired cell replication results in the destabilized immune system, and many age related diseases (Khan, Alam, Akhter, and Shahin, 2007) Various antioxidants neutralize the free radicals and prevent oxidation on a cellular level. Some herbs are commonly used as anti-ageing agents such as Allium sativum, Arnica Montana, Ocimum sanctum, Panax ginseng, Cucumis sativum, Rosa damascene, Lysium barbarum, Withania somnifera, Ficus bengalensis and Sanctum album (Chang, 2008)

6. Antipsoriasis activity:

A variety of natural preparations and proprietary formulas which containing plant material have been used which provide symptomatic relief in treatment of psoriasis (Nandakishore, Shubhangi, Prakash, Pallavi, and Parimal, 2007) The different herbal remedies for treatment of psoriasis are shark cartilage extract, oregano oil, turmeric, oil, milk thistle and curcumin. Various types of antimicrobial agents are used in the management of psoriasis are cossia Tora, Azadiracta indica, Wrightia and, calendula officinalis (Raman, 2005)

Standardization of herbal drug:

This requires modifying the herbal drug preparation to a defined content of a constituent or a group of substances with known therapeutic activity by adding excipients or by mixing herbal drugs or herbal drug preparations (Ben and Ziv, 2004). Botanical extracts produced right from crude plant material show substantial difference in composition, quality, and therapeutic effects (Jeyaprakash, 2007). Standardized extracts are high-quality extracts hold consistent levels of define compounds, and they are subjected to attentive quality controls during all phases of the growing, harvesting, and manufacturing processes (Ansari, Alam, Jain, and Akhter, 2008). No regulatory definition exists for standardization of dietary supplements. As a result, the term “standardization” can denote many different things. Some manufacturers use the term standardization incorrectly to refer to constant manufacturing practices, but following a recipe is not adequate for a product to be called standardized (Schie) Therefore, the presence of the word “standardized” on a supplement label does not automatically show product quality (Akhtar and Ali, 2005). When the active principles are unknown, marker substances should be confirmed for analytical purposes and standardization (Chauhan, 2006). Marker substances are chemically describe constituents of an herbal drug that are essential for the quality of the finished product. preferably, the chemical markers selected would also be the compounds that are accountable for the pharmacological effects in the body (Raina, 2003). There are two types of standardization. In the first category, “true” standardization, a definite phytochemical or group of constituents is known to have activity (Hussin, 2001). Ginkgo with its 26% ginkgo flavones and 6% terpenes is a classic example. These products are highly concentrated and no longer represent the whole herb, and are now considered as phytopharmaceuticals (Kuhn, 2002) In numerous cases they are extermly more productive than the whole herb. However the process may result in the loss of efficacy and the potential for adverse effects and herb–drug interactions may enhance (Aiyer and Namboodiri, 1957). The other type of standardization is based on the guarantee of the manufacturers for the existence of a certain percentage of marker compounds which are not indicators of therapeutic activity or quality of the herb (Basu, 1947).

Pharmacovigilance of herbal medicines:

Current state and future direction:

The WHO has accepted the effective participation of drug regulatory authorities and national pharmacovigilance centers, among others, in the advancement of these guidelines. This has provided a appropriate starting point for strengthening conversation between these authorities, which will be essential to assure progress towards the common objective the safety of herbal medicine (Akerele, 1993). The approved way is to include herbal medicine in the current national pharmacovigilance system. The guidelines consequently determine the particular challenges posed in monitoring the safety of herbal medicine effectively and recommended way for overcoming them exculsive attention is also given to the reporting system for adverse reaction to herbal medicine (Benedum, 1998). Safety is a elemental principle in the provision of herbal medicine and herbal products for health care and a critical component of quality control (Patwardhan, Warude, Pushpangadan, 2005). The guidelines were developed with the perspective that within the current pharmacovigilance system, monitoring of safety of medicine should be improved and expanded in ways that will all the fortunate monitoring of herbal medicine (Nortier, Martinez, Schmeiser, and Arlt, 2000). The involvement of herbal medicine in pharmacovigilance system is becoming important with the growing use of herbal product and herbal medicine globally (Bent, 2004).

All over the world utilisation of herbal medicine today is huge so that in terms of population exposure alone, it is crucial to find the risks identical with their use (Thakur and Prasad, 2008). Safety of herbal medicine is therefore on essential public health issues (Kathrin and Eike, 2003). Herbal medicine are again and again used in association with other medicines, and it is important to understand the consequences of such combined use and monitor whether any be accomplished more readily within the existing pharmacovigilance system (Manoj, 2006).

Regulatory status of herbal drug:

The law related condition of herbal drug are varies from country to country (Kshirgsagar, 2005). Many developing country have the lots of information related to traditional drug and their uses (Routledge, 1998). But these developing countries do not have any law criteria to add these traditional drugs of herbal use in legislation (Bigoniya, 2009). Many of the drugs are used in many diseases without known any knowledge about their unsafe side-effects. But nowadays claims are developed to treat more serious illness with herbal drugs (Kunle, 2012). And hence the narrow requirements are necessary to ensure the safety, quality and to support specific purpose. Hence therefore the regulatory status of herbal drug are varies from country to country based on the proof which are experience and some consider the herbal drug are dangerous.

CONCLUSION:

The present review provide significant role and therapeutic uses of the herbal drug. Herbal drug technology are more potential in healthcare system for all human beings not only in disease condition but also to maintain the proper health. It is observed that the industries are having worldwide scope for preparation of herbal products. Any use of herbal drug first of all we known about their standardization and quality control parameters. A major factor on developing industries is that they has been lack of knowledge on economic benefits related to industrial utilisation of medical plant. Moreover reviews are necessary to observed the biological activities of drug.

REFERENCES:

1. Shang, MF. Status of the development of antidiabetic TCM in China. Chin J TCM Inform. 2000; 7: 78-81.

2. Sehgal, A. Herbal medicines-harmless or harmful. Anesthesia. 2003; 57: 947-948.

3. Feng, Y; Wang, N; Zhu, M; Feng, Y; Li H and Tsao, S. Recent Progress on Anticancer Candidates in Patents of Herbal Medicinal Products; Recent Patents on Food. Nutrition and Agriculture. 2011; 3: 30-48.

4. Rodeiro, I; Magarino, Y; Ocejo, O; Garrido, G and Delgado, R. Use of natural products in anti-cancer alternative therapy: risk of interactions with conventional anti-cancer drugs; Boletín Latinoamericano del Caribe de Plantas Medicinales Aromáticas. 2008; 7 (6): 332-344.

5. Lalla, JK (2005), “Herbal medicines revisited”, The Pharma Review, 12, 101-105.

6. Khan, I; Alam, S; Akhter, S; Shahin, N andAnsari, FZ. Ageing and its herbal treatment . The Pharma Review. 2007; 12: 131-134.

7. Chang, RC and So, KF. Use of anti-ageing herbal medicine Lycium barbarum against aging-associated diseases. Cell and Molecular Neurobiology. 2008; 28(5): 643-652.

8. Nandakishore, D; Shubhangi, G; Prakash, I; Pallavi, S; Parimal, K and Shishupal, B . Herbal plants with antifertility activity. The Pharma Review. 2007; 8: 131-135.

9. Raman, D., Sabitha, JS and Shivanand, BG. Anti-microbial activity of herbs used in psoriasis. The Pharma Review. 2005; 8: 71-72.

10. Ben, E; Ziv, M and Frenkel, M. Complementary medicine and psoriasis: linking the patient‟s outlook with evidence-based medicine. Int J Dermatol. 2004; 43(7): 552.

11. Jeyaprakash, K. Herbal therapy for depression. Herbal Tech Industry. 2007; 3(7): 19-25.

12. Ansari, FZ; Alam, S; Jain, P; Akhter, S andAnsari, MZH. Vitiligo and its herbal treatment. The Pharma Review. 2008; 12: 137-13.

13. Schie, AAA. Modes of action of currently known chemical antiplaque agents otherthan chlorohexidine. Journal of Dental Research. 1998; 68: 1609.

14. Akhtar, N; Ali, M and Alam, MS. Herbal drugs used in dental care. The Pharma Review. 2005; 10: 61-68.

15. Chauhan, VS. Standardizing herbs and intermediates-newer approaches. The Pharma Review. 2006; 2: 37-44.

16. Raina, MK. Quality control of herbal and herbo-mineral formulations. Indian Journal of Natural Products. 2003; 19: 11-15.

17. Hussin, AH. Adverse effects of herbs and drug herbal interactions. Malaysian Journal of Pharmacy. 2001; 1: 39-44.

18. Kuhn, MA (2002), “Herbal remedies: drug-herb interactions”, Critical Care Nurse”, 22, 22-32.

19. Aiyer, MN; Namboodiri, AN and Kolammal, M. Pharmacognosy of Ayurvedic Drugs, Trivandrum. 1957; 5: 49-55.

20. Basu, NK and Lamsal, P. Investigation on Indian medicinal Plants II: Hydrocotyle asiatica. Quart.J. Pharm. 1947; 20: 137.

21. Akerele, O (1993), Herbalgram, 28, 13.

22. Benedum, J (1998), “In Phytopharmaka IV”, Rietbrock, 3.

23. Patwardhan, B; Warude, D; Pushpangadan, P and Bhatt, N (2005), “Evidence-Based Complem. Altern. Med, 2, 465.

24. Nortier, JL; Martinez, MCM; Schmeiser, HH; Arlt, VM and Bieler, A et. al. Engl. J. Medicine. 2000; 342: 1686.

25. Bent, S and Ko, R . Standardization of herbal medicines. Am. J. Med. 2004;116, 478.

26. Thakur, AK; Prasad, NAV and Ladha, KS. Stability testing of herbal products. The Pharma Review. 2008; 4: 109-112.43.

27. Kathrin, K; Eike, R and Anne, B. Validation of standardized high performance thin layer chromatographic methods for quality and stability testing of medicines. Journal of AOAC International. 2003; 86(5): 909-915.

28. Manoj, S et al. Pharmacovigilance of herbal medicines. The Pharma Review. 2006; 12: 119-124.

29. Kshirgsagar, N. Thepharmacovigilance system in India. Drug Safety. 2005; 28: 647-650.

30. Routledge, P. 150 Years of pharmacovigilance. The Lancet. 1998; 351: 1200-1201.

31. Bigoniya, P. Pharmacovigilance of herbal medicines: Current Status and Future Strategies. 2009; 77.

32. Kunle, Oluyemisi Folashade, Egharevba, Henry Omoregie. Review Standardization of herbal medicines - A review. International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation. 2012; 4(3): 101-112.

Received on 17.09.2023 Modified on 01.10.2023

Asian J. Res. Pharm. Sci. 2023; 13(4):309-312.

DOI: 10.52711/2231-5659.2023.00052