Phytoparmaceuticals and Its Applications in Therapy

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been used to treat illnesses since medicine began. Nowadays, 80% of the population in the planet uses drugs directly or indirectly derived from plants. In the past, natural products were used empirically; people experimented with them as helpful for their well-being and learned to treat ailments with specific plants. Henri Leclerc introduced the terminology of phytotherapy into medical science and this concept refers to study of the use of extracts of natural origin as medicines or health-promoting agents. Usually pharmacology isolates an active compound from a given plant, phytotherapy aims to reserve the complexity of constituents from a plant with moderately less processing. Phytopharmaceuticals (PP) are composed by one plant species or by complex mixtures of plants, presented in a natural or in a pharmaceutical form. The tendency is to use standardized plant extracts in the formulation, obtained by a patented extraction process. PP need to fulfill the same requirements as other medical products: safety, efficacy and consistent quality.