British herbal pharmacopoeia, American herbal pharmacopoeia & German commission E have prescribed certain specifications regarding herbal drugs. These include
* ”The herbal drug or herbal preparation in its entirety is regarded as the active substance”.
* Constituents with known activity ”are chemically defined substances or group of substances which are generally accepted to contribute substantially to the therapeutic activity of a herbal drug or of a preparation.”
* Makers ”are chemically defined constituents of an herbal drug, which are of interest for control purposes.
* Standardization refers to ” adjusting the herbal drug preparation to a defined content of a constituent or a group of substances with known therapeutic activity.
* A specification is defined as a list of tests, reference to analytical and biological procedures and appropriate acceptance criteria, which are numerical limits, ranges or other criteria for the test described.
Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia has also indicated standards for crude drugs like sampling (preliminary examination, foreign matter, quantitative microscopy), moisture content (loss on drying, separation and measurement of moisture, chemical method [Karl Fischer Method] extractive value, ash value, swelling index (applicable to mucilage containing drugs), chromatographic studies of standardized extracts etc. These standards are of further importance as they control the nature of the extract to be manufactured and standardized.
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