https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310101592_Innovative_medicines_and_quality_reverse_pharmacognosy
Abstract
In
this paper we discuss an Emotive project in which Indian and Dutch
farmers and veterinarians exchanged knowledge about herbs and
management. This project was discussed at a workshop on the quality
control of herbal therapeutics that took place in Zwolle on October 23,
2014 [1]. A major contribution came from prof. Dr. Padma
Venkatasubramanian of the Institute of Trans-disciplinary Health
Sciences and Technology, Bangalore, India. She suggested that currently
phytotherapeutics are not standardized in line with their traditional
uses and this should be critically reconsidered. This complaint is also
heard from practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Venkatasubramanian spoke in favor of the so-called reverse
pharmacognosy, in addition to describing what is called the reverse
pharmacology by others [2]. Emancipation of herbal medicine
Pharmacognosy is the discipline that is most involved in the scientific
substantiation of the traditional uses of medicinal plants. After
identifying specific, potent pharmacologically active substances in
plants (mixtures), applications derived from tradition medicine became
more reliable (more predictable) because extracts were standardized on
the now well-known active ingredient(s), and the safety of these
medicines could be better ensured, in particular unexpected overdoses
were prevented. The usefulness of this scientific discipline for herbal
medicine was not always obvious. Often the active plant compounds were
isolated or synthesized and as such patented-more often derivatives of
these compounds were developed that were easier to patent and were more
readily available to the digestive system but these were often more
powerful and more toxic. The resulting patented drugs have gained a
leading position in the medical world and the unpatented spices are
largely pushed out of the market. Many plants that were the basis of
medicinal products developed in this way could not be used anymore by
professionals in the Netherlands (such as Digitalis spp, Datura
stramonium, Hyoscyamus niger, Papaver somniferum. Since 2001 also plants
like Rubia tinctorum and Ephedra spp.) were taken out of the herbal
markets. However some plants, such as Salix spp., willow bark), have
made a comeback as herbal medicinal products in the EU. In some third
world countries that have their own traditional medicines there has been
much opposition to the above described erosion of traditional herbal
medicine which is characterized as biopiracy. Ethno-pharmacology has
thus become associated with the theft of traditional knowledge. Several
pharmacologists in the developing world have expressed support for
better cooperation with the local traditional healers. The World Health
Organization and the European Parliament have expressed support for
this, but in practice, bodies such as the Committee on Herbal Medicinal
Products (HMPC) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), despite the
insistence of the European parliament, contain no experts in the field
of traditional medicine in their working group which is composed
primarily from pharmacologists and pharmacologists. Examples of reverse
pharmacology The typical development of a medicine runs from laboratory
to clinic and is very long and costly [fig.1]