Phytochemical Standardization of Herbal Drugs and Polyherbal Formulations

Abstract

The recent global resurgence of interest in herbal medicines has led to an increase in the demand for them. Commercialization\rof the manufacture of these medicines to meet this increasing demand has resulted in a decline in their quality, primarily\rdue to a lack of adequate regulations pertaining to this sector of medicine. The need of the hour is to evolve a systematic\rapproach and to develop well-designed methodologies for the standardization of herbal raw materials and herbal formulations.\rIn this chapter, various methods of phytochemical standardization, such as preliminary phytochemical screening, fingerprint\rprofiling, and quantification of marker compound(s) with reference to herbal raw materials and polyherbal formulations, are\rdiscussed in detail and suitable examples are given.