Herbal Drugs And Fingerprints: Evidence Based Herbal Drugs (Hb 2012) Hardcover

Due to their perceived health benefits over synthetic drugs, evidence-based herbal medicines are gaining popularity. The diverse active compounds in these herbal drugs, such as alkaloids, coumarins, and flavonoids, are unique and can be identified at a molecular level using modern analytical techniques, creating a "fingerprint" for each herb. These fingerprints are crucial for evaluating the consistency, quality, and stability of herbal drugs through visual comparison with standardized patterns. They offer a scientific way to verify claims about the authenticity and reliability of the chemical components, providing complete traceability from the plant's identification, collection location and season, storage, processing, stability during manufacturing, and the rationale for combining herbs in multi-herb formulations. These quality-focused records are scientifically sound and widely accepted by regulatory bodies and industries worldwide for detecting deliberate or accidental contamination, adulteration, pollutants, and for assessing stability and overall quality. Factors like climate and geography can lead to variations in the chemical composition and thus the medicinal properties of the same plant species: these regional and physical differences are identified by fingerprinting at the time of herb collection. Chromatographic (TLC, HPTLC, HPLC, GC) and spectroscopic (UV-Vis., FTIR, NMR, MS, LC-MS, GC-MS) techniques are globally recognized and validated methods for generating these fingerprints for the various chemical classes of active ingredients in herbal drugs. Currently, there's a need for a single resource that compiles all herbal drug fingerprinting techniques, including theory, case studies, and strategies for discovering patentable formulations. This book aims to be a significant contribution to the field, serving as a valuable tool for scientists, medical doctors, technicians, industrialists, researchers, and students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, and across the globe.