Standardization of Metal-Based Herbal Medicines

Problem statement: Standardization of herbal drugs is a burning topic in herbal drug industry today. Standardization is difficult because they are usually mixtures of many constituents and the active principle in most cases is unknown. However it is possible to generate a physico-chemical fingerprint for the standardization of these drugs with reference to authentic drugs, for monitoring variation between preparations from different companies and for evaluating batch to batch changes during long term storage. The present study was on the characterization of some of the metal based herbal medicines which were in traditional use for treating infectious diseases. Approach: Modern techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX), Infrared spectroscopy (IR), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) were used to generate physico-chemical fingerprint. Results: Our results showed that the metals in most of the herbal medicines were in the oxide or sulfide form. Some of the medicines contained metal particles in the nano range. Conclusion: In order to bring out high quality herbal products, herbal drugs must be standardized using modern techniques.