Current requirements for quality and standardization of medicinal plants

Abstract

Medicinal herbs and preparations from them are used in both developed and developing countries and represent a significant part of the global pharmaceutical market. Standardization is one of the most important mechanisms to ensure quality control of herbal medicines. The term «standardization» is used to describe all measures taken during the manufacturing process and quality control, leading to obtaining a product with reproducible quality. In order to receive high-quality herbal medicines, we must take care of all stages of production, since the proper identification and cultivation of plants, the season and the region of their collection and ending extraction and purification process of herbal medicines. The most widely used instrumental methods of analysis are chromatographic «fingerprinting», spectroscopic analysis and hybrid methods of analysis. In this review the majority of modern methods, approaches and trends in standardization of herbal medicines are characterized