As per PCI 6th sem syllabus HDT chapter 1

1. Prepared by:
Akshata A Jain
M-pharm (Pharmaceutics)

2. • Herbs are used by the mankind since its origin on the earth,
to alleviate human illness &maintenance of general health.
• As per WHO, 80% of world population of the developing
countries still rely on the crude drugs & medicines for their
primary health care needs.
• The term medicinal plant includes various types of plants
which contains substances that can be used for therapeutic
purpose.
Introduction:

3. • The term herbal drugs denotes plants or plant parts that
have been converted into phytopharmaceuticals by
means of simple process involving harvesting, drying &
storage.
• Several problems not applicable to synthetic drugs often
influence the quality of herbal drugs. For instance :
• Herbal drugs are mixtures of many constituents.
• The active principles in most cases are unknown.
• Selective analytical methods & reference compounds
may not be available commercially.
• Plant materials are chemically & naturally variable.
• The sources & quality of the raw material are variable.

4. Medicinal
herbs
Function
al foods
Phytoche
micals
Neutrace
uticals
Ethicals
Cosmece
uticals
OTC
medicine
s
Flavours
&
fragranc
es
Aromath
erapy
Culinary
herbs
Herbal
teas
Medicinal herbs & its
applications

5. Herbs refer to the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant
(either fresh or dried), while spices are usually dried and
produced from other parts of the plant, including seeds ,
berries, bark, roots and fruits.
 The word herb is derived from the Latin word "herba" which
means grass, green stalk or blades
 Depending upon the perspectives, the word herb has
different meanings.
• In commercial terms: Herbs gently refers the plants used for
culinary purposes.

6. • In horticulture: Herbs refers to herbaceous, describes the
exterior of plant
• In botany: Herbs refers to entire or aerial parts of small, annual
or biennial, non-woody plant.
• In taxonomy: Herbs refer to above ground/aerial parts such as
leaf, flower and stem.
HERBALMEDICINE
• These consist of medicinal plants or any parts of medicinal
plants, usually in unprocessed or crude forms which have
medicinal value.
• They include different parts of plants like entire aerial part,
roots, rhizomes, stem, leaves, flower, fruits, seeds, bark etc.

7. WHO GUIDELINES FOR HERBAL MEDICINES
1. Herbal medicines are finished labelled medicinal product
that contain active ingredients; aerial or underground parts of
plants or combination of plants, either in crude or processed
formulations.
2. Herbal medicines may include juices, gums, volatile oils,
fixed oils or other substances derived from plants.
3. Herbal medicines might possess excipients.
4. Medicines possessing crude material mixed with chemically
distinct substances including isolated phytoconstituents are not
termed as herbal medicines.
5. The main objectives are:
a. Provisions for recommended general test methods.
b. General limits for contamination for herbal drugs

8. HERBAL MEDICINAL PRODUCT
 Products Produced from herbs and used in medicinal
purposes are called Herbal medicinal Products.
These are defined as any medicinal product,
exclusively containing one or more active ingredients of
herbal origin. In addition they may contain excipients.
In India there are variety of herbal medicinal products
that are produced as well as exported to other
countries which play an important contribution in
country's GDP

9. HERBAL DRUG PREPARATION
• The different types of preparations prepared for the herbs in
order to enhance the bioavailability as well as palatability
are called herbal drug preparations.
• These are preparations derived from herbal drugs which are
prepared by various techniques like extraction, infusion,
decoction, maceration, distillation, expression, fractionation,
purification, concentration and fermentation.
• Herbal drug preparation are available in market in the form
of powders, extracts, tinctures, fixed oils, volatile oils, resins,
gums, etc.
Volatile oils
Tinctures
Powders
Resins
Extracts

10. Herbal drug preparationtechniques
Soxhlet extraction Using mortar & pestle

11. SOURCES OF HERBS
❖ Herbs are important source of therapeutically active
constituents which affect the living organisms.
The Sources of Herbs are:
1. Biological Source
2. Geographical Source
3. Marine Source
4. Plant tissue culture

12. 1. BIOLOGICALSOURCE
• Plants have been used in the treatment of various diseases
from ancient times. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani systems are
based on the use of plants & other natural substances.
• The Microbes are microscopic organism which includes
viruses, bacteria etc. These micro organisms are source of
many immunobooster.

13. 2. GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCE
• The two factors determine the commercial geographical
sources of a crude drug:
1. Suitability of the plant/drug to specific environment
2. The economic factors associated with the production of a
drug in a particular area.

14. 3. MARINESOURCE
• This is a branch of Pharmacognosy deals with naturally
occurring substances or drugs of therapeutic value from
marine sources.
Examples:- Cephalosporin, Sinularin, Asperidol.

15. 4. PLANT TISSUE CULTURE
Plant tissue culture is in vitro cultivation of plant cell or tissue
under aseptic and controlled environmental conditions, in
liquid or on semisolid well-defined nutrient medium for the
production of primary and secondary metabolites or to
regenerate plant.

16. SELECTION,IDENTIFICATION& AUTHENTICATIONOF HERBALS
• Medicinal Plant is a plant that can be utilized for one
or more medicinal purposes or as precursor for
pharmaceutical semi synthesis.
• The species or botanical variety selected for
cultivation should be the same as specified in the
official Pharmacopoeia or official document.
• In case of newly introduced medicinal plants, the
variety selected for cultivation should be identified
and documented.

17. 1. Botanical Identity:
The species, subspecies, genus, variety etc. of the plant
for cultivation should be verified from a qualified
botanist/Institute and recorded.
2. Specimens:
In case of a new plant with medicinal properties whose
identity is not known, a specimen of the plant should be
submitted to a national herbarium for identification and
documented.
3. Seeds and other propagation materials:
The suppliers of seeds and other propagation materials
should specify all the necessary information relating to
the identity, quality as well as their breeding history.

18. PROCESSING OF HERBAL RAW MATERIAL
• AS per WHO guidelines medicinal plants or crude drugs
should be harvested and collected only when plant
possess maximum amount of therapeutically active
phytoconstituents.
Processing of raw material is performed in two steps-
1. Primary Processing
2. Specific Processing

19. Processing of herbal raw materials involves various stages for
which the crude drugs undergo after harvesting. Processing is
classified as primary and Specific processing which are further
subcategorized as follows
Primary processing Specific processing
Garbling (Dressing) Cutting/ Sectioning
Washing Ageing / Sweating
Boiling Baking / Roasting
Leaching Boiling / Streaming
Drying Stir/ Frying
Fumigation

20. Recent Techniques for standardization of Herbal Drugs
Fingerprinting and Marker compound Analysis
• TLC
• HPTLC
• HPLC
• LC-MS
• GC-MS