This document summarizes a seminar presentation on the standardization of plant drugs. It discusses the importance of standardization for herbal medicines and outlines various evaluation methods for plant drugs, including organoleptic, microscopic, and chemical evaluations. The World Health Organization guidelines for standardization are also summarized, which include botanical, physicochemical, pharmacological, and toxicological parameters. The document concludes that phytochemical standardization provides valuable information for preliminary analysis and quality control of herbal medicines.

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SEMINAR ON
“STANDARDIZATION OF PLANT DRUGS”
PRESENTED BY:-
ANVESH NAG . P
HT NO. 11EC1R0039
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:-
Mrs. SOMA JANA , M. PHARM (Ph.D)
(DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY)

2. CONTENTS:-
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 INTRODUCTION
 TYPES OF EVALUATION
1) ORGANOLEPTIC EVALUATION
2) MICROSCOPICAL EVALUATION
3) CHEMICAL EVALUATION
 W.H.O GUIDELINES
 APPLICATIONS
 CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

3. INTRODUCTION
PHYTOCHEMISTRY:
 It is a branch of chemistry concerned with the plants and plant products.
 It deals with phytochemicals, derived from plants, their composition and process
 It is widely used in the field of herbal medicine/ botanical medicine / phyto medicines which refers to the use
of plant seeds, roots, leaves, bark, flowers for medicinal purpose.
 According to W.H.O(World Health Organisation) 2001, 60% of the world’s population depend on traditional
medicine and 80% of the population in developing countries depend almost on traditional medicine practices in
particular, herbal medicines for their primary health care needs
 It can be considered sub fields of botany/ chemistry. Activities can be led in botanical gardens or in the wild with
the aid of ethnobotany.
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The renewed interest in the use of herbal medicine depending on several factors:-
 side effects of modern medicine
 high cost of synthetic drugs.
The effectiveness of plant remedies.
So the herbal drugs deserves the word “SARVAROGA NIVARINI”. Because they are playing a
vital role in curing disease.

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Generally different techniques commonly used in the field of phytochemistry are:-
 Extraction
Isolation
Structure elucidation of natural products (Mass spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy) as well as various
chromatography (HPLC, LC MS)
STANDARDISATION:
It is the important step for the establishment of a consistent biological activity, a consistent chemical profile,
or simply quality assurance program for production and manufacturing of herbal drugs.
W.H.O specific guidelines for the assessment of the safety, efficacy, quality of the herbal medicines as a
pre requisite for global harmonization.

5. TYPES OF EVALUATION
1) ORGANOLEPTIC EVALUATION:-
TEST OBSERVATION INFERENCE
Colour Light yellow
Light brown
Dark brown to violet
Red
Orange
Green
Ginger, squill
Fennel, dill
Clove, ergot
Cinchona, arjuna
Rhubarb
Senna, digitalis
Odour Characteristic
Odourless
Aromatic crude drugs
Absence of aromatic crude
drugs
Taste Aromatic
Aromatic & pungent
Sweet
Bitter
Dill, fennel
Ginger
Liquorice
Cinchona, nux_ vomica
Mucilagenous
Astringent
Isapghol
Myrobalan
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6. 2) MICROSCOPICAL EVALUATION:
For detection of organ or part of the plant present and its identifying microscopic
characteristics.
 Clear the powder with clearing reagent. Eg: chloral hydrate, lacto phenol.
 Stain the cleared powder with staining reagents. Eg: phloroglucinol, iodine solution .
ORGANS TO BE DETECTED:
1) Bark
2) Wood
3) Rhizomes
4) Leaves
5) Seeds
6) Flowers
7) Fruits
8) Herbs
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7. 3) CHEMICAL EVALUATION:-
 Test with water
 Test with sulphuric acid
 Test with caustic alkali
 Test with glacial acetic acid
 Test for alkaloids
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8. W.H.O GUIDELINES
 BOTANICAL PARAMETERS: 1) Sensory evaluation
2) Foreign matter
3) Microscopy
 PHYSICOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS: 1) Chromatographic finger print
2) Extractive values
3) Moisture content and volatile matter
4) Volatile oil content
 PHARMACOLOGICAL PARAMETERS: 1) Bitterness value
2) Haemolytic property
3) Astringent property
4) Swelling index
5) Foaming index
 TOXICOLOGICAL PARAMETERS: 1) Arsenic
2) Pesticide residues
3) Heavy metals
4) Microbial contaminations
5) Radio active contaminations
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9. APPLICATIONS
Mostly applied in various pharmacognostic study of plants such as:-
 Identification,
 Evaluation ,
 Quality control of crude drugs,
 Stability assessment,
 Safety assessment,
 Assessment of efficacy
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CONCLUSION
Phytochemical standardization is an essential tool for preliminary analysis of various crude drugs and
it gives valuable information about different parameters as like physicochemical parameters,
botanical parameters and also about various evaluation methods.

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REFERENCES
 Text book of Practical Pharmacognosy by Dr. K.R. Khandelwal
 Text book of Herbal Drug Technology by S.S. Agarwal, M. Paridhavi
 Text book of Pharmacognosy by Trease and Evans
 Wikipedia

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