Herbal drugs in milieu of modern drugs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22377/ijgp.v2i1.385Abstract
Medicinal herbs are moving from fringe to mainstream use with a greater number of people seeking remedies and health approaches free from side eff ects caused by synthetic chemicals. Most people believe that herbs are harmless plants, but when these are taken concurrently with drugs, interactions are possible. In this review article, we have discussed several popular herbs, and attempted to provide a comprehensive review that summarizes drug-herb interactions. Mustering systematic information about drug-herb interactions will be a Herculean task. Th e hurdles in evaluating herbal drugs include lack of standardization, insuffi cient quality control, overallunder-reporting, etc. Th e challenges posed in evaluating and improving the safety of herbal drugs are the need for standardization and quality control, offi cial compendia, dissemination of information, additional research, pharmacovigilance and regulations. With concentric eff orts to surmount these challenges, the wealth of traditional knowledge can be put to judicious use in the form of herbal
remedies and that it fi nds a rightful place in the health care system.
Key words: Current status, standardization, quality control, regulations, herb-drug interactions
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