Foreword

Phytopharmaceuticals broadly include botanicals and plant based drugs. Drugs and Cosmetics (Eighth Amendment) Rules, 2015 published by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India defines Phytopharmaceutical drugs as purified and standardized fraction with defined minimum four bio-active or phytochemical compounds (qualitatively and quantitatively assessed) of an extract of a medicinal plant or its part. These are for internal or external use of human beings or animals for diagnosis, treatment, mitigation, or prevention of any disease or disorder but does not include administration by parenteral route. In a nutshell, the phytopharmaceuticals embody the development of science-based drugs from botanicals with a long history of safety and use documented in the authoritative books licensed through appropriate regulatory provisions as drugs.

The thought process behind carving out this specialized class of drugs is that the herbal medicinal products are generally considered to be well tolerated and provide a superior benefit-to-risk ratio compared to synthetic drugs. In addition, the evidence-based medicines are being increasingly mentioned in clinical practice guidelines as first-line therapy for various diseases and indications, particularly in developing countries.

In contrast to traditional medicines, phytopharmaceuticals are open to the use of drug development technologies: modern techniques of solvent extraction, fractionation, potentiating steps, add-back techniques, modern extraction techniques, freeze-drying, formulation developments, and many other techniques. Moreover, high degree of characterization and assessment of quality parameters is aimed for phytopharmaceuticals. Thus these drugs does not simply depend on traditional knowledge, but involve strict scientific scrutiny.

Multi-level research on phytopharmaceuticals is expected to provide impetus to natural product based drug discovery thereby considerably cutting the cost of new drug discovery as against the new chemical entities based drug research programs. This will also increase the possibility of meeting unmet medical needs as multi-component drugs are considered ideal for multi-target diseases and syndromes. This would also open wider prospects of IPR and globalization of traditional knowledge and practices.

Persistent efforts in this direction would bring phytopharmaceuticals a step closer to reality. More and more investigators and investors need to collaborate in this drug development process. The developed phytopharmaceuticals licensed under by the regulatory agencies can be prescribed by qualified physicians and practitioners of complementary systems of medicine. Thus, the need of the hour is to bring reputed herbal drugs under the umbrella of phytopharmaceuticals as the future is going to belong to 'Indigenous'.

Dissemination of knowledge is indispensable to propagation of any concept. The conference organized at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi on Phytopharmaceuticals on August 6, 2020 provided one such platform for discussions among the stakeholders. It highlighted the need to undertake research in this filed. Several participants from industry and research laboratories from India and abroad emphasized the need to undertake extensive research to enable the plant based drugs to attain their rightful place in providing healthcare as phytopharmaceuticals.