Date:16/03/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/03/16/stories/2004031603440500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Call to standardise herbal medicine

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI, MARCH 15. The honorary director, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Laboratory, Mumbai, R.T. Sane, on Monday laid emphasis on the need to standardise herbal medicine to enable controlled growth of natural drug market in the country. He felt that the West would approve of the efficacy of Indian drugs if and only they were standardised.

He was speaking on "Standardisation of herbal medicines - challenges and opportunities'' at the national seminar on `Role of chemistry in emerging areas of applied sciences' conducted by the chemistry wing of Sri Venkateswara University and the Indian Society of Analytical Scientists (ISAS), BARC, Mumbai.

Quoting WHO, Mr. Sane said that 80 per cent preferred herbal medicine for primary healthcare, thanks to the "Green Consumption Movement." On the increasing patronage to ethnic drugs under the notion that `natural is safe,' he cautioned that it was not always correct, citing clove oil, which contains 60-90 per cent of Eugenol, a substance that has been found to promote mild tumour if used indiscriminately. Expressing concern over the law permitting herbal products to be freely marketed on having a literature reference while the toxicity levels go untested, Mr. Sane saw the need for standardisation here though the drugs had been in vogue since time immemorial. "In the olden days, the practitioners themselves used to collect herbs, process them and treat patients. Now, different entities deal in procurement of herbs, processing, production and marketing/prescription and hence there is no coordination," he observed, underlining the need for a reliable, specific and sensitive quality control system in place.

Blaming a pharma major for mentioning the name of a herb belonging to the Phyllanthus family on its drug as an ingredient, which grows only in the West Indies , Mr. Sane also faulted the non-printing of the expiry date on drugs, saying, "Shelf life can never be infinite.''

He saw a major threat to the country's drug industry in the exploitation of the 700 plants that are used in most of the drugs. A global meet to be held in Bangalore by July end would draft a document to be presented to the Union Government on the need for organic farming of herbs.

Earlier, the local chapter of ISAS was declared open and A. Krishnaiah was named the convenor by its national president, P.K. Padmanabhan.

The SVU Vice-Chancellor, P. Murali, inaugurated the seminar, the SVU college principal, S. Jayarama Reddy, presided, the head of the Chemistry department, K. Subramanyam Reddy, gave an overview while P. Chiranjeevi, proposed a vote of thanks.