Herbal drug mixture

Thin-Layer Chromatography Analysis of Herbal Drug Mixtures. 355... 

First of all, in the general part, the supply of herbal drugs and herbal mixtures, the indications and possible treatments, are dealt with, as well as explaining herbal preparations, how to make the lea, storage, and authentication. Short sections are devoted to the Standard Licences and the contamination of drugs (microbiological, heavy metal, fumigation, radioactive substances). 

Inhibitory effect of a mixture of herbal drugs (TJ-960, SK) on pentylenetetrazol-induced convulsion in EL mice. Epilepsy Res 1988 2(5) 337-339. 

Proponents of herbal drugs argue that these medications must be safe because they have been used by countless people for thousands of years. They cite preliminary studies that show that some herbal remedies work as well as conventional drugs and produce fewer side effects. For example, an herbal mixture of fennel, peppermint, and wormwood improved symptoms of abdominal pain more effectively and with fewer side effects than the conventional drug metoclopramide, according to a study published in Phytomedicine. And many studies have shown that St. John s wort seems to be as effective as standard antidepressants for mild to moderate depression while carrying a lower risk of side effects. 

Unlike the situation with ephedra, in many cases we simply have no idea what the components do. The constituents of some herbal drugs seem to work synergistically and cannot be separated without loss of activity of the preparation. Herbal preparations are most often used as crude mixtures and are not standardized or analyzed for the content of the active principlc(s). Hence, the chemistry of medicinal herbs cannot be treated in the same way as that of. say. a pure antibiotic or a calcium channel blocker. The medicinal chemistry of the actions, interactions, and side effects of herbal products is complex and difficult to assess clinically and chemically. Frequently, some of the compounds present... 

Most of the TLC systems are standard systems and have been optimized when necessary. In spite of other available analytic techniques, such as gas chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography, TLC still remains a most useful, quick, effective, and low-cost method for the separation and identification of complex mixtures of herbal drug preparations and plant constituents. 

Gas chromatography is very useful for the determination of complex mixtures of analytes. The detectors employed for the qualitative analysis is a mass spectrometer. Whereas the quantitative analysis, both detectors are useful. Factors affect the separation are the typ>e of the column, temperature programming of the column oven, meanwhile sensitivity is mostly depended on detector as well as the isolation and injection method of the volatile constituents. In qualitative analysis of volatile oil in herbal drugs, a GC-MS is required and LRI of the constituents have to be determined. For quantitative determination both GC-MS and GG-FID are applicable but FID is more economical. Separation of the volatile oils from herbs, steam distilled is still the method of choice for conventional method. Headspace is now widely available and convenient. In this chapter, examples of both qualitative and quantitative analysis of Mimusop elengi flowers and rhizomes of Curcuma spp. were illustrated in details. 

The first Guidelines for the assessment of herbal medicines were published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991, handing down the basic principles for the analysis of plant preparations (herbal drug preparations, HDPs) and the finished products prepared from these (HMPs) A method for identification and, where possible, quantification of the plant material in the finished product should be defined. If the identification of an active principle is not possible, it should be sufficient to identify a characteristic substance or mixture of substances (e.g., chromatographic fingerprint ) to ensure consistent quality of the preparation. ... 

A few of the herbal drug preparations of the Ph. Eur. are oral liquids teas and extracts such as tinctures (extracts with ethanol-water mixtures). Teas are dealt with in chapter Oral solids because they are dispensed as solids, see Sect. 4.11. Liquid extracts are dealt with in chapter Raw materials, see Sect. 23.12. 

Picroliv, a mixture of iridoid glycosides, picroside 1 (125) and kutkoside (126) (1.0 1.5, w/w), isolated from the rhizomes of Indian plant, Picrorhiza kurroa (locally known as kutki), is a potential hepatoprotective and antitumor drug. Anand et al. studied the mechanism of therapeutic action of this herbal drug in... 

Besides the medicinally used herbal mixtures, there arc also the so-called household teas which are preferred by people who are sensitive to coffee or who do not wish to drink a caffeine-containing beverage on a regular basis. Household teas are made up from drugs which, apart from small amounts of tannins, have only aroma substances and possibly also plant acids bramble leaves, raspberry leaves, hibiscus flowers, hips and haws, and apple skins arc frequent components of such teas [4]. 

The results have not been entirely satisfactory. On the one hand, it would be expected that for many preparations a relicensing would be simplified and, on the other hand, it should not be overlooked that the opinions of the risks in the partly very schematic and uniform details regarding the indications take up a considerable amount of space. For combined drugs, including herbal mixtures, the second bill modifying the AMG, which came into force on 1.2.1987, led to further problems now it has to be shown that each medicinally active component contributes to the positive evaluation of the remedy. 

Similar to the challenges outlined in Chapter 2, the fact that most Chinese herbal medicines are complex mixtures of multiple active constituents further complicates the interpretation of study data, as well as extrapolation to other botanical products. Japanese Kampo (traditional Chinese herbal mixtures) prescriptions have been used for many years to treat different chronic conditions and are presently manufactured in Japan as drugs with standardized quantities and qualities of constituents. Homma et al. (51) evaluated the effect of three commonly used Japanese Kampo prescriptions, Sho-saiko-to (Xiao Chai Hu Tang), Saiboku-to, and Sairei-to, on prednisolone pharmacokinetics in humans. All three botanical prescriptions contain glycyrrhizin, a strong inhibitor of 11-p-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase. Chen et al. (52) had shown that glycyrrhizin decreased plasma clearance and increased AUC and concentration of prednisolone. 

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