Toward the integration and advancement of herbal medicine: a focus on traditional Indian medicine

Abstract

Indian traditional codified medicinal systems and folk medicine are a vast lexicon of herbal formulations and medicinal plants. In last few decades, the popularity of herbal medicine/ products has increased worldwide, not only as part of conventional treatment strategies but also for health care management, and thus the opportunity to promote Indian traditional medicine is increasing globally. Recently people from several developed and developing countries have been attracted toward traditional Indian herbal medicines. A large number of modern medi- cines are derived from the plants used in Ayurveda and other traditional medicinal systems. Ayurveda and other traditional herbal medicines are capable of addressing some modern unmet medical needs, and can provide the basis for developing potential medicines. Lack of drug standardization, information, quality control, and strict monitoring are the primary lacunae in the promotion of traditional Indian herbal products. In recent years several regulatory and promotional approaches have been undertaken to overcome such problems. Quality control, rigorous research to establish the effectiveness and safety, and credible clinical trials of the herbal products are required. Thus the careful and scientific integration of Indian traditional herbal medicine into evidence-based clinical management of diseases is essential to provide better health care facilities to people.