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Herbal Drugs: Safety, Cost-Effectiveness, Regulation, Current Trends, and Future Directions

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Bioprospecting of Tropical Medicinal Plants

Abstract

Herbal drugs have achieved popularity by playing a significant role in traditional medicines and socioeconomic development, supported by their versatility, therapeutic safety, and affordability. In legitimacy, a variety of active compounds that plausibly have drug allying clamor in human body are frequently occurred in these drugs. Herbal medicines are complex therapeutic preparations obtained from any unpurified or processed part of plant (stem, root, leaves, flowers, seeds). Bringing into action, medicinal plants are frequently more affordable than acquiring expensive modern pharmaceuticals to treat various illnesses. A considerable number of plants have substantiated their effectiveness in managing numerous diseases. Herbs are recognized as dietary supplements under the current law, and hence manufacturers can sell and market their herbal medicines without demonstrating safety and efficacy as is mandatory for over-the-counter drugs. Hence, research into herbal plants that are basically available and cost-effective and do not require exacting pharmaceutical manufacturing processes, evident to have enchanted global attention as alternative approach to therapeutic agents. Although herbal medicines are “nature-derived” and so often perceived as safe, a number of severe reactions have been documented owing to adulteration, contamination, or interactions with drugs. Taking into account their raised market demand, it is indispensable to make sure the therapeutic safety and efficacy prior to consumption. To promise safety, therapeutic potency, efficacy, and reproducible attribute of herbal medicines, proper identification, authentication, and quality control are crucial. The use of standardized herbal plant extracts possibly a secure therapeutic for different ailments based on their longer history of use in the treatment of various ailments established on millennia of expertise. Wherever side effects of traditional remedies have been addressed, it’s generally because the herbal plants were misidentified, contaminated, or improperly prepared and administered by people who weren’t properly trained. So, it is still challenging to track down and establish new therapeutics to promote health and well-being.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, The Women University Multan, Multan, Pakistan

    Sidra Nisar Ahmed, Samina Kousar & Adeela Haroon

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Mushtaq Ahmad & Mohammad Zafar

  3. Department of Botany, Division of Science and Technology, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan

    Ghulam Yaseen

  4. Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, The Women University Multan, Multan, Pakistan

    Nadia Iqbal

  5. Department of Botany, Mir Pir University of Science and Technology, Mirpur, Pakistan

    Neelum Rashid

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  1. Sidra Nisar Ahmed
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  2. Mushtaq Ahmad
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  3. Mohammad Zafar
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  4. Ghulam Yaseen
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  5. Nadia Iqbal
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  6. Neelum Rashid
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Studies in Stem Cells Cell Therapy and Toxicological Genetics (CeTroGen), Graduate Program in Health and Development in the Midwest RegionFaculty of Medicine (FAMED)Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) Campo Grande, Cidade Universitária, Pioneiros, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

    Karuppusamy Arunachalam

  2. Key Laboratory for Wild Plant Resources, Kunming Institute of Botany, Kunming, Yunnan, China

    Xuefei Yang

  3. Department of Botany, NSS College Nemmara, Palakkad, Kerala, India

    Sreeja Puthanpura Sasidharan

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Ahmed, S.N. et al. (2023). Herbal Drugs: Safety, Cost-Effectiveness, Regulation, Current Trends, and Future Directions. In: Arunachalam, K., Yang, X., Puthanpura Sasidharan, S. (eds) Bioprospecting of Tropical Medicinal Plants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28780-0_62

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