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Herbal Medicine and Public Healthcare: Current and Future Challenges

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Abstract

Worldwide, traditional treatments (including herbal medicines) and traditional practitioners are still the primary source of health for many millions of people. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for the incorporation of traditional medicine in public health services. However, for most of the traditional practices, information about efficacy, safety and quality is poor, and the control on the proper utilisation of these practices is scarce or inexistent, so the evaluation of the results of treatment (efficacy) is quite difficult. Moreover, the established standards, certification requirements, competency testing (quality), or legal requirements for a business licence (regulation) are often absent. The global integration of traditional medicine in public health services envisioned by WHO depends on a coordinated approach by the following stakeholders: regulators, healthcare professionals/traditional practitioners, manufacturers and patients/public. In this chapter, we provide the reader with an overall picture of the challenges faced by each of the stakeholders and what are the current approaches to solve them. We deliberately will restrict the discussion to herbal medicines, specifically Phytotherapy, which is just one of the many types of traditional practices.

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Abbreviations

ADME:

Absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion

ADR:

Adverse drug reactions

ANVISA:

National Sanitary Surveillance Agency

BCM:

Brazilian Central of Medicines

CAM:

Complementary and alternative medicines

CHP:

Conventional healthcare practitioners

GC:

Gas chromatography

HDI:

Herbal-drug interaction

HPLC:

High-performance liquid chromatography

MHRA:

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

NCCAM:

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

NDMC:

National Drug Monitoring Centre

NHPD:

Natural Health Products Directorate

NHPs:

Natural health products

NHS:

National Health Systems

NNHPD:

Natural and Non-prescription Health Products Directorate

PNPIC:

National Policy on Complementary and Integrative Practices

PNPMF:

National Policy on Medicinal Plants and Herbal Medicines

QC:

Quality control

RENAME:

Brazilian list of essential medicines

RENISUS:

Plant species considered significant to SUS

SUS:

Brazilian public health system

TAIM:

Traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine

TCM:

Traditional Chinese medicine

THMP:

Traditional herbal medicinal product

TKM:

Traditional Korean medicine

TLC:

Thin-layer chromatography

TMP:

Traditional medicine practitioners

UK:

United Kingdom

USA:

United States of America

VIGIPÓS/Notivisa:

National Notification System to the Sanitary Surveillance

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil

    Dâmaris Silveira, Jose M. Prieto & Marcela M. Freitas

  2. School of Pharmacy, University College London, London, UK

    Jose M. Prieto & Andre L. D. A. Mazzari

Authors
  1. Dâmaris Silveira
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  2. Jose M. Prieto
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  3. Marcela M. Freitas
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  4. Andre L. D. A. Mazzari
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Correspondence to Dâmaris Silveira .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Vale do Itajaí – UNIVALI, Itajaí, Santa Catarina, Brazil

    Valdir Cechinel Filho

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Silveira, D., Prieto, J.M., Freitas, M.M., Mazzari, A.L.D.A. (2018). Herbal Medicine and Public Healthcare: Current and Future Challenges. In: Cechinel Filho, V. (eds) Natural Products as Source of Molecules with Therapeutic Potential. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00545-0_13

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