Opportunities and Challenge in Development of Phytopharmaceuticals

Background: Phytopharmaceuticals are a complex mixture derived from plant sources that are used as a medicine or drug for the development of phytopharmaceutical products. Treatments using herbal medicines are one of the important forms of traditional medicine and 70% to 80% of the world population prefers this as primary health care.

Aim: The objective of this article is to focus on various opportunities and challenges in the development of phytopharmaceutical drugs. Opportunities in phytopharmaceuticals are massive because of its increasing demand as therapeutics as well as nutritional dietary supplements. The new phytopharmaceuticals innovation permits the development of the drug using advanced techniques of solvent extraction, fractionation, potentiating steps, modern formulation development etc.

Result: The recent focus on phytopharmaceuticals is expected to promote innovations and development of new drugs from botanicals in a scientific way and would help in the acceptance of the use of herbal products by modern medical professionals. It would encourage research in phytopharmaceutical drug development by academia, researchers, and industry.

Conclusion: Medicinal plants have been a great source of drugs to treat various diseases since times immemorial. In recent years, use of herbal medicines has been increasing because of the failure of modern therapies against chronic diseases and because of their unwanted significant side effects. Various modern drugs and their synthetic analogues have been prepared from prototype compounds isolated and discovered from plants to treat chronic diseases.