National Seminar on “Regulatory and Quality Aspects of Herbal Drugs and Botanicals”

Abstract

The last few decades have been witness to mainstreaming of economical, safer, effective, and environment friendly herbal drugs. Most of these herbal drugs have roots in traditional systems of medicines. India has been a historical custodian of such traditional knowledge for centuries. Therefore, today, India is one of the rich sources of herbal medicines and has potential to meet the global demand. The herbal drug market has been rapidly growing due to increasing global interest. However, to utilize this opportunity, there is urgent need for research based scientific development and standards based quality control of herbal dugs, as well as relevant regulatory enforcement. At present, there is a strong gap in terms of lack of harmonized regulatory approach and quality standards for herbal drugs. To achieve this, practice standards should be developed utilizing available scientific wisdom so as to improve monographs, related data, and its acceptability. With this background, the University Grants Commission-Special Assistance Programme sponsored second national seminar on “Regulatory and Quality Aspects of Herbal Drugs and Botanicals” was organized by the Department of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard. The main objective of the seminar was to explore, review, and discuss the current research topics in the field of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry including botanicals, herbal products, traditional formulations, and other bioactive natural products. The seminar specifically discussed issues related to authentication of natural products and assurance of its quality; establishment of safety; efficacy and quality of herbal drugs and formulation using modern analytical techniques, screening of bioactivity, and toxicology of natural products; and botanicals and standardized extracts. The seminar also focused on regulatory aspects of herbal drugs and botanicals for safety assessment. Significant scientific developments in the field were presented during the seminar through one keynote address, seven plenary lectures and 114 posters, which were divided into different themes such as plant drugs and botanicals, herbal formulations, medicinal botany, regulatory, and reviews. After the conference, the invited manuscripts were peer reviewed by the selected committee of experts and 43 manuscripts were selected finally for publication as special issue. Out of which, 21 manuscripts are taken first for this issue of Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Sciences, however, next 22 manuscripts will be published as a special issue in Drug Development and Therapeutics. The seminar could not have been successful without the generous support from the sponsors namely, Aimil Pharmaceuticals India Ltd., Organization of Pharmaceutical Unity with Bioallied Sciences, Dabur India Ltd., Agilent Technologies and Anchrom. The Organizing Committee expresses its sincere gratitude to the authors and reviewers for their valuable contribution.