Herbal Drug Technology

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About the Book

The second edition of the textbook Herbal Drug Technology, based on the curriculum of various universities, caters to both bachelor’s and master’s courses in pharmacy and allied science. It presents detailed information on Indian systems of medicine, herbal therapeutics, crude drugs and medicinal botany. It explains the systematic examination of crude drugs, their extraction, isolation and analysis using modern techniques like TLC, PC, HPLC, GLC, UV, IR, NMR, MS, GC-MS, DSC and Sepbox. In vitro culture of medicinal plants, nutritional requirements and processing techniques, and guidelines for setting up an in vitro culture laboratory are discussed in detail.

The book also discusses the screening of herbal drugs for pharmacological activity with regard to anti-fertility, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, anti-anginal, anti-thyroid and many other conditions. New to this edition are topics such as herbal cosmetics, nutraceuticals, chemotaxonomy, recent changes in vivo anti-cancer screening models and screening of cardiac glycosides, and methods of literature search and patenting of herbal drugs.

Special Features:

1. Designed according to the curriculum of undergraduate and postgraduate course in pharmacy of universities in Indian and abroad

2. Incorporates recent advances in technology

3. Provides a comparative study of dosage forms in ayurveda and modern medicine

4. Includes a detailed analysis of more than 60 phytopharmaceuticals

5. Discusses standardisation of herbal drugs WHO protocol, different methods used for standardisation, quality control standards for herbal extracts and validation of herbal products

About The Author

S S Agrawal, PhD (AIIMS), FICAI, Pro-Vice Chancellor and DG (Academic, Innovation and Research Coordination) and Director, Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, has more than 40 years of experience in teaching and research. Professor Agarwal served as Founder Director, Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Science and Research, New Delhi, for about 20 years and was instrumental in the setting up in Delhi Pharmaceutical Science & Research University (DPSARU). He is the member of several committees including AICTE, UGC CSIR, ICMR, INMAS, CCRAS, NAAC and ICRI. He is the recipient of several honours including Honorary Foreign Fellowship by the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences (2010), Distinguished Service Award by the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences, Canada (2010), Principle of the Year Award by the Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers (2007), Honorary DSc from Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, Bhopal (2007), Lifetime Achievement Award by Indian Pharmacological Society (2006) and Fellowship of International Society of Heart Research (2003), among others.

M. Paridhavi, Principle, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Pharmacy, Trikaripur, Kasaragod District, Kerala, obtained his masters degree in Pharmacognosy with distinction from Karnataka University and his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from DIPSAR, University of Delhi.

During 1995-2005, he was a faculty member at VV Sangh’s Togari Veeramallapa Memorial College of Pharmacy, Bellary, Karnataka. He is the co-author of the book Clinically Useful Herbal Drugs, along with Professor S.S. Agrawal.

Foreword

Herbal drug technology has become a very important instrument for converting botanical materials into therapeutically useful products and medicines. Thus, the area will gain increasing importance, which of course is obvious and need no further emphasis. However the countries which desire to bring herbal products into the global market and become successful need to make continuous use of modern scientific techniques and integrate it with traditional knowledge and biodiversity. As India is trying to work towards achieving this goal, integration of herbal drug technology and undertaking research specifically in this area, assumes special significance.

The present book, written by two authors who have vast experience in the modern area of experimental science and who have joined together to bring out this publication, is one such honest effort in this direction. I believe that it will fill the current information gap and also meet the educational need of undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy students who are being trained in the area of herbal therapeutics for whom this book has been especially designed.

Preface to the First Edition

Herbal Drug Technology is written according to the curriculum of various universities for both bachelors’ and master’s courses in pharmacy and allied sciences conducted globally. It contains detailed text on Indian systems of medicine, herbal therapeutics, crude drugs and medicinal botany-plant taxonomy, morphological considerations of crude drugs and fundamental considerations of histology. The book also discusses in vitro culture of medicinal plants, nutritional requirements, processing, techniques, and establishes guidelines for setting up an in vitro culture laboratory. It explains in detail the systematic examination of crude drugs, their extraction, isolation and analysis using various modem techniques like TLC, PC, HPLC, HPTLC, GLC, UV, IR, H-NMR, I3C-NMR, MS, GC-MS, DSC and Sepbox.

A special emphasis has been laid on screening of herbal drugs for pharmacological activity like anti-fertility, anti-diabetics, anti-cancer, anti-anginal, anti-thyroid and many others. There is a brief discussion on estimation of hormones using ELISA, transdermal delivery systems, toxicological studies of herbal drugs and pharmocovigilance of traditional medicines. Guidelines for clinical trials and good clinical practices are also mentioned.

Standardisation of herbal drugs has been gaining importance. This book discusses the WHO protocol, different methods used for standardisation, QC standards for herbal extracts and validation of herbal products. It includes a comparative study of Ayurvedic and modem dosage forms like chuma, bhasma, kwatha, taila, tablets, injections and ointments.

All recent scientific innovations/advances have been incorporated in a simple and lucid manner. The book will be useful for students, academicians and professionals of pharmacy, Ayurveda, Unaniand Siddha.

The authors thankfully acknowledge the gracious permission accorded by the Honourable President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam and Distinguished Scientist and Chief Controller (R&D) Dr ASevathanu Pillai, for reproducing the photograph of a typical herbal garden layout from their book Envisioning an Empowered Nation.

The authors are thankful to Prof. Manjunatha V Jali, Principal, TVM College of Pharmacy, Bellary and Dr E N Gaviraj for their valuable support.

The author sare also grateful to Ms Sibi  PI, MAlvin Jose,  Sachin  Nain,  Alok  Arya,  Niranjan Galpalli, Kalai Selvan, Pragya Gupta, Ginpreet Kaur and Dr Renu Agrawal for their valuable help.

Preface to the Second Edition

The revised edition of Herbal Drug Technology is in your hands. This edition has been brought out after a thorough revision of the earlier text. Several topics have been added on the basis of developments in the field since the book was written. We believe that the book now covers as far as possible the latest technology followed all over the world.

The topics included are herbal cosmetics, nutraceuticals, chemotaxonomy, methods of literature search and patenting of herbal drugs. The recent changes in vivo anti-cancer screening models and screening of cardiac glycosides have also been added.

We are thankful to many professionals and colleagues for their help during the preparation of the second edition. In particular, we wish to thank Dr K S Muralikrishna, D H N Aswatharam and Dr E N Gaviraj.

We are also grateful to Preethimol Francis and Sujitha C for their valuable help.

We thank the publisher, Universities Press (India) Private Limited, and the staff members of Orient BlackSwan for their cooperation in bringing out this book.

Introduction

Man has been using herbs and plants products for combating diseases Since times immemorial.

The Indian subcontinent is enriched by a variety of flora-both aromatic and medicinal plants. This is due to the wide diversity of climatic conditions in India ranging from deserts to swamplands. Numerous types of herbs have been well recognised and catalogued by botanists from the high ranges of the Himalayan tract up to the sea-shore of Kanyakumari. This extensive flora has been greatly utilised as a source of many -drugs in the Indian traditional system of medicine.

In India, the earliest mention of the use of medicinal plants is to be found in the Rigveda which was written between 4500-1600 BCE. A detailed account of the world’s first symposium on medicinal plants is given in the first chapter of Vrihat Samhita and since 1600 BCE the amount of literature on this subject is boundless. The traditional system of medicine is so engrained in our culture that, even now 75% of the Indian population depend on this indigenous system for relief. With such a huge section of an ever-increasing population relying on herbal remedies, it is imperative that the plant products which have been in use for such a long time be scientifically supported for their efficacy.

The World Health Organization is now actively encouraging developing countries to use herbal medicine which they have been traditionally used for centuries. They have identified 3000 plants from the forests of India and other tropical countries which can be used as medicine. The active ingredients from these plants are worth nearly Rs. 2000 crores of rupees for the US market alone and nearly 8 times that for the world market (Muggenburgh H. 1983; Rustogi R.P. 1980). Only with the scientific advancements in the fields of pharmacology and toxicology in the western hemisphere, has drug development based on natural products gained intensity in Europe and USA. The importance of such an investigation, in India was realised long back and the first systematic study with these aims was started by Sir Ramanath Chopra at Calcutta about 45 years back.

In the early stages, the science of medicine developed around those plants which had curative properties. A continued search for medicinal plants during the last several centuries has given rise to a long list of plants which are of great use in the treatment of diseases, and for promoting health. It can be stated, more or less truthfully, that every disease has a cure in a plant growing in nature. Recently, Moose has described a number of vegetable drugs that can be used as single drug remedies.

Drugs used in medicine today, are either obtained from nature or are of synthetic origin. Natural drugs are those obtained from plants, animals, microbes or minerals. Those obtained from plants and animals are called drugs of biological origin and are produced in the living cells of plants or animals.

Until now, only 6000 plant constituents have been isolated and studied. The flora on this earth, representing an inexhaustible source of medicinal plants, remains incompletely explored. This unexplored world provides the most challenging aspects of pharmaceutical and medical science to scientists in search of new and more potent drugs with marked therapeutic virtues and negligible side effects. During the last few decades, tremendous progress has been made in the study of phytochemicals.

Natural products, as a basis for new drugs, have great promise and it is gratifying to note that the World Health Organization have shown an abiding interest in plant-derived medicines, described in the folklore of various countries.

Plants have been one of the important sources of medicines since the dawn of human civilisation. For instance, the Chinese drug Mahung was in use for over 5000 years for the treatment of different types of fever and respiratory disorders. Cinchona sp was in use in Peru even in 1825, primarily for controlling malaria. In spite of the tremendous development in the field of synthetic drugs and antibiotics during the 21 st century, plants still contribute one of the major sources of drugs in modem as well as traditional medicine throughout the world. One-third of the world’s population treat themselves with traditional medicines. Some of the compounds now commonly used in medicine were isolated from plant sources and used as early as in the 19th century. Examples are morphine (1803), quinine (1812), atropine (1831), papaverine (1848), cocaine (1860), digitoxin (1865), and pilocarpine (1875). Examples of some important compounds isolated in the 20th century include ergotmine (1518), labeline (1921), ligoxin (1930), reserpine (1931), tubocurarine 
(1935), diosganin, vincristine (1961), and vimblastine (1963).

Plants are the only economic source of a number of well-established and important drugs. In addition, they are also the source of chemical intermediates needed for the production of some drugs.

As stated before, about 75% of the Indian population relies heavily on the use of herbal drugs for the treatment of diseases. The factors responsible for the continued and extensive use of herbal remedies in India are their effectiveness, easy availability, low cost, comparatively less toxic effects and the shortage of practitioners of modem medicine in rural areas. There is a growing appreciation in India, as in many other developing countries, of the need to make greater use of traditional remedies in order to be able to provide medicine for primary health care.

Although use of traditional remedies is advantageous, it does suffer some limitations. The main limitation is the lack of standardisation of raw materials, of processing methods and of the final products, dosage formulation, and the non-existence of criteria for quality control.

Contents