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Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2006, pp. 531-532 Editorial Time To Take Medicinal Plant Research Out of the Jungle Dr EKI Omogbai Associate Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
Code Number: pr06001 In the last ten years, there has been a massive increase
in the pharmacological evaluation of medicinal plants and research output in
this area especially in the Third World continues at a frenetic pace. As the
current Editor-in-Chief of the West African Journal of Pharmacology and Drug
Research (a journal that publishes articles all areas of pharmacology and toxicology),
I have observed that over sixty percent of papers submitted to us for publication
(especially from Africa and Asia) are work on medicinal plants. What is responsible for this upsurge and research skew
in favour of medicinal plant research in the developing world? Some of
the ready reasons include the following: (a) The acknowledgement of the fact that a
greater number of the peoples of the Third World depend on herbal preparations
for the treatment of their ailments. (b) Plants are the most likely source from
which new drugs will be discovered for the treatment not only of the recalcitrant
old ailments like malaria and tuberculosis but also of the latter-day diseases
such as HIV/AIDS and the unpredictable and wild influenzas that episodically
plague us. (c) Third World countries have come to the
realization that total dependence on the use of orthodox drugs is an unrealistic
burden on their often fragile economies in the face of the strangle-hold of
the multinational companies on orthodox drug supply whose patent rights they
own. (d) The use of herbal remedies has taken on
a global appeal, as their use is less regimented than that of orthodox drugs. (e) The enormous plant biodiversity provides
a tempting arena of opportunities for research and contribution to knowledge
and the realization of a sense of achievement on the part of the investigator. (f) Routine pharmacological evaluation
of plant preparations especially in animal models provides a ready source of
new knowledge and often requires less of the sophisticated equipment usually
needed for today’s cutting-edge molecular investigations. From current research reports, it is obvious that extracts
from various plant parts are screened for properties like analgesic, anti-inflammatory,
hypotensive, hypoglycaemic, antimicrobial, anticonvulsant and similar effects
in animal models reflecting the disease conditions and their symptoms for which
such plants are often used in folk medicine. In a few cases, efforts
are made to isolate active principles. It has been argued that the isolation
of active principles is not an essential condition for herbal medicine and
that it is best to determine efficacy and other effects using each plant preparation
the way it is employed as herbal remedy. It is my opinion that for the acceptance of a herbal remedy
for routine and general use, a perfunctory screening in animal models for efficacy
is not enough. The time has come for the establishment of standard protocols
for the evaluation of any herbal remedy. Depending on the intended or established
use of a remedy, controlled clinical trials and broad-spectrum toxicity studies
may be necessary. It will then be easier to answer such questions as “Does
this really cure or ameliorate this condition?”, “ Is it safe to give this
preparation to a pregnant woman or a nursing mother?” , “Can a hypertensive
individual be safely treated for his rheumatoid arthritis with this herbal
preparation?”. It is time to take medicinal plants out of the current jungle of uncoordinated research to a domain of structured and standard scientific protocols in order to properly evaluate them for registration and acceptance for clinical use. Copyright 2006. TJPR Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria |
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