Due to the increase in the consumption of herbal medicine, there is a need to know which scientifically based methods are appropriate for assessing the quality of herbal medicines. Fingerprinting has emerged as a suitable technique for quality estimation. Chemical markers are used for evaluation of herbal medicines. Identification and quantification of these chemical markers are crucial for quality control of herbal medicines. This book provides updated knowledge on methodology, quality assessment, toxicity analysis and medicinal values of natural compounds.

The authors of this thematic issue provide a comprehensive summary of most recent knowledge and references on quality control in wide fields. Quality control is essential for natural products like natural medicine and related food products. In this issue fifteen chapters have been included, discussing in detail various aspects of quality control. It will certainly prove useful not only for phytochemical researchers, but also many scientists working in numerous fields. Much effort has been invested by the contributors to share current information. Without their efforts and input 'Quality Control of Herbal Medicine and Related Areas' could not exist.

Quality Control and Evaluation of Herbal Drugs brings together current thinking and practices for evaluation of natural products and traditional medicines. The use of herbal medicine in therapeutics is on the rise in both developed and developing countries and this book facilitates the necessary development of quality standards for these medicines.This book elucidates on various challenges and opportunities for quality evaluation of herbal drugs with several integrated approaches including metabolomics, chemoprofiling, marker analysis, stability testing, good practices for manufacturing, clinical aspects, Ethnopharmacology and Ethnomedicine inspired drug development. Written by Prof. Pulok K Mukherjee, a leader in this field; the book highlights on various methods, techniques and approaches for evaluating the purity, quality, safety and efficacy of herbal drugs. Particular attention is paid to methods that assess these drugs' activity, the compounds responsible and their underlying mechanisms of action. The book describes the quality control parameters followed in India and other countries, including Japan, China, Bangladesh, and other Asian countries, as well as the regulatory profiles of the European Union and North America. This book will be useful in bio-prospecting of natural products and traditional medicine-inspired drug discovery and development. - Provides new information on the research and development of natural remedies - essential reading on the study and use of natural resources for preventative or healing purposes - Brings together current thinking and practices in quality control and standardization of herbal drugs highlighting several integrated approaches for metabolomics, chemo-profiling and marker analysis - Aids in developing knowledge of various techniques including macroscopy, microscopy, HPTLC, HPLC, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS etc. with the development of integrated methods for evaluation of botanicals used in traditional medicine - Assessment of herbal drugs through bio-analytical techniques, bioassay guided isolation, enzyme inhibition, pharmacological, microbiological, antiviral assays and safety related quality issues - References global organizations, such as the WHO, USFDA, CDSCO, AYUSH, TCM and others to serve as a comprehensive document for enforcement agencies, NGOs and regulatory authorities

Evidence-Based Validation of Herbal Medicines: Translational Research on Botanicals brings together current thinking and practice in the characterization and validation of natural products. The book describes different approaches and techniques for evaluating the quality, safety and efficacy of herbal medicine, particularly methods to assess their activity and understand compounds responsible and their probable underlying mechanisms of action. This book brings together the views, expertise and experiences of scientific experts in the field of medicinal plant research, hence it will be useful for researcher who want to know more about the natural lead with their validation and also useful to exploit traditional medicines. - Includes state-of-the-art methods for detecting, isolating and performing structure elucidation by degradation and spectroscopic techniques - Highlights the trends in validation and value addition of herbal medicine with different scientific approaches used in therapeutics - Contains several all-new chapters on topics such as traditional-medicine-inspired drug development to treat emerging viral diseases, medicinal plants in antimicrobial resistance, TLC bio profiling, botanicals as medicinal foods, bioprospecting and bioassay-guided isolation of medicinal plants, immunomodulators from medicinal plants, and more

The global popularity of herbal supplements and the promise they hold in treating various disease states has caused an unprecedented interest in understanding the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects focuses on presenting current scientific evidence of biomolecular ef

Safety is a fundamental principle in the privision of herbal medicines and herbal products for health care and a critical component of quality control. These guidelines provide practical technical guidance for monitoring the safety of herbal medicines with pharmacovigilance systems.

Medicinal plant materials are supplied through collection from wild populations and cultivation. Under the overall context of quality assurance and control of herbal medicines WHO developed the Guidelines on good agricultural and collection practices (GACP) for medicinal plants providing general technical guidance on obtaining medicinal plant materials of good quality for the sustainable production of herbal products classified as medicines. These guidelines are also related to WHO's work on the protection of medicinal plants aiming promotion of sustainable use and cultivation of medicinal plants. The main objectives of these guidelines are to: (1) contribute to the quality assurance of medicinal plant materials used as the source for herbal medicines to improve the quality safety and efficacy of finished herbal products; (2) guide the formulation of national and/or regional GACP guidelines and GACP monographs for medicinal plants and related standard operating procedures; and (3) encourage and support the sustainable cultivation and collection of medicinal plants of good quality in ways that respect and support the conservation of medicinal plants and the environment in general. These guidelines concern the cultivation and collection of medicinal plants and include certain post-harvest operations. Good agricultural and collection practices for medicinal plants are the first step in quality assurance on which the safety and efficacy of herbal medicinal products directly depend. These practices also play an important role in protection natural resources of medicinal plants for sustainable use.

Evidence based herbal drugs are on hi-acceptance day by day due to health friendly nature compared to synthetic drugs. The active ingredients in herbal drugs are different chemical classes, e.g. alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids, glycosides, phenols, steroids, terpenes etc., are identified at molecular level using current analytical practices, which are unique characteristic, as finger, so known as fingerprints. The fingerprints are used for assessment of quality consistency and stability by visible observation and comparison of the standardized fingerprint pattern, have scientific potential to decipher the claims made on these drugs for authenticity and reliability of chemical constituents, with total traceability, which starts from the proper identification, season and area of collection, storage, their processing, stability during processing, and rationalizing the combinational in case of polyherbal drugs. These quality oriented documents have ample scientific logics so well accepted globally by regulatory authorities and industries, to determine intentional/ unintentional contamination, adulteration, pollutants, stability, quality, etc. parameters. Based on geo-climatic factors, a same plant species has different pharmacological properties due to different ingredients; such regional and morphological variations are identified by fingerprints, at the time of collection of the medicinal herb. The chromatographic (TLC, HPTLC, HPLC, GC,) and spectral (UV-Vis., FTIR, MNR, MS, LC-MS, GC-MS etc.) techniques have world-wide strong scientific approval as validated methods to generate the fingerprints of different chemical classes of active ingredients of herbal drugs. Presently there is a need for a book having all the fingerprinting techniques for herbal drugs at a place with theory, case studies and art to discover patentable forms. The present book is a mile stone in the subject, to be utilized by Scientists, Medical Doctors, Technicians, Industrialists, Researchers, and Students both in PG and UG levels.

Are herbal drugs totally devoid of adverse effects when used alone, as herbal formulations, or in concurrent use with modern medicines? Safety Concerns for Herbal Drugs examines that question and others like it to give you the information you need to judge for yourself the balance between the risks and benefits associated with the therapeutic use o

Access to accurate, evidence-based, and clinically relevant information is essential to anyone who uses or recommends herbal products. With input from some of the most respected experts in herbal and integrative medicine, this completely revised edition of the American Herbal Products Association’s Botanical Safety Handbook reviews both traditional knowledge and contemporary research on herbs to provide an authoritative resource on botanical safety. The book covers more than 500 species of herbs and provides a holistic understanding of safety through data compiled from clinical trials, pharmacological and toxicological studies, medical case reports, and historical texts. For each species, a brief safety summary is provided for quick reference, along with a detailed review of the literature. Easily understood classification systems are used to indicate the safety of each listed species and the potential for the species to interact with drugs. Enhancements to the Second Edition include: Classification of each herb with both a safety rating and a drug interaction rating More references listed for each individual herb, vetted for accuracy Specific information on adverse events reported in clinical trials or case reports Safety-related pharmacology and pharmacokinetics of each herb, including drug interactions Additional information on the use of herbs by pregnant or lactating women Toxicological studies and data on toxic compounds Representing the core of the botanical trade and comprising the finest growers, processors, manufacturers, and marketers of herbal products, the mission of the AHPA is to promote the responsible commerce of herbal products. The American Herbal Products Association Botanical Safety Handbook, Second Edition ensures that this vision is attained. The book will be a valuable reference for product manufacturers, healthcare practitioners, regulatory agencies, researchers, and consumers of herbal products.