Traditional Medicine in Asia

Traditional Medicine in Asia
importance as they all have an impact on
quality. For traditional medicine to get a
foothold on a sustained basis, the quality
of the medicine has to be assured. There is
a world of difference between the efficacy
of a medicine made from plants cultivated
and harvested using good agricultural
practices and that derived from plants
uprooted from the wild. 25
In most countries, even in those where
the use of traditional medicine is strong,
the cultivation of medicinal plants is at
present limited to a few items, most natural
products being collected by villagers and
tribal people from wastelands and forests.
For want of training, they may destroy the
whole plant instead of collecting just the
part to be used. Re-plantation and
propagation is left to nature. Collection not
done during the proper season often
detracts from the efficacy of the end
product. The networking of collection is
under the control of traders and the
material collected is sold in the nearby
township from where it reaches regional
centres for domestic use or export. Enlightened
industries do, however, cultivate
plants so as to be assured of standard
quality and the presence of active
ingredients. They have invested in recruiting
botanists and standardization experts in
order to access quality raw material. Some
of these industries have their own R&D
facilities where documentation is
maintained and quality assured through
finger printing, HPLC and TLC tests.
However, small manufacturing industries
rely on market sources which have many
attendant problems which affect quality.
In India, at the federal level the
Departments in charge of traditional
medicine (Indian Systems of Medicine and
Homoeopathy under the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare), the Department of
Environment and Forests, Agriculture,
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Biotechnology, Science & Technology and
Commerce have come together to evolve
a coordinated approach to the development
of the medicinal plant sector. A
Medicinal Plant Board has been established
to coordinate all the activities under
the Department of Indian Systems of
Medicine and Homoeopathy which also
has the responsibility to lay down standards
for traditional medicine drugs. Despite this
policy-level support, the role of traditional
medicine in the health system will be
decided by only one factor, i.e., the curing
and health-giving ability of the practitioners
and the remedies on a sustained basis.
Standardization, a Pre-requisite
for Quality Control of Traditional
Medicine Drugs
Standardization of plant-based drugs is
extremely difficult because presently very few
quality control tests are available in most
countries using traditional medicine. In their
absence, there are no methods to evaluate
the contents and the quantities as claimed
on the label. Quality control is required at
three stages, namely, when the raw material
is used, for confirming the process
undergone by the drug during manufacture,
and at the finishing stage. The shelf-life or
date of expiry needs to be indicated and the
possibility of mixing modern drugs has to
be strictly eliminated and strong deterrents
imposed to discourage such practices.
Measures to test the absence of pesticide
residues, heavy metals and aflatoxin have
to be taken through proper regulation and
testing. 26, 27 At least a few important markers
have to be identified through TLC (finger
printing) and the process of making random
checks has to be institutionalized and
penalties imposed if non-permissible
substances are found or the medicine does
not conform to safety standards. For patent
proprietary drugs, manufacturers must be