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<DIV><FONT size=2>Hi all,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>I would like to share some thoughts on the issues of safety,
government control and perception of the industry by the general public/medical
profession.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>In an old Indian fable, an enlightened man once
asked his favorite disciple to go out into the forest and bring back at least
one plant that had absolutely no medicinal value. This was in order to test his
knowledge in the healing arts as learned over the years. He came back after
scouring the forest for months on end and declared that he could not find any
such plant. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Contrast this with information that anyone can find on OTC
items (like Tylenol/Aspirin) and try to find any item in any pharmacology book
that says that it is free from any toxic effects.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>I would like to propose here that there is a common factor in
both the scenarios: Depth of Knowledge. Those who really understand a field of
medicine, are not only confident of the effectiveness of products, but also
aware of what toxicity it can also possess. The fine point is to determine what
to eat, how much to eat, how to eat and the lifestyle changes to perform.
Consider Kava, Ephedra, Stevia and lately even commonly used herbs. Nobody
died of eating Kava plants over hundreds of years. But if you start extracting
Kava lactones, make up a nice sounding standardized limit of the lactones and
start selling these to patients, there is obviously going to be trouble sooner
or later. Perhaps there is inadequate knowledge of dosage or what other
Kava ingredients are needed to act synergistically or to counter any toxicity of
the "main" ingredient. We should therefore come around to the fact that a more
holistic approach is needed to make up even a monograph of a plant, let alone
it's complete therapeutic profile.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Regarding government control or regulations, I would like say
that there is not enough control at the right place and excessive control at
other places. Consider the fact that for most of the herbal medicines (oops -
cannot say that in US and some other countries where these are known by the
more"acceptable terms" of "dietary supplements"), there are no controls of how
much of a herb or its extract or its phytochemicals may be put into a product
sold to the public, no control of how much they can charge for these products
from the public nor any control on how or where they get their raw material
from. There is no herbal equivalent of a US Pharmacopoeia for pharmaceuticals
and similar position exists for more countries worldwide. So one cannot get any
testing methods for most herbs (this means not over 200 methods exist in the
public domain while the number of products is anybody's guess). In fact the few
testing methods that do exist are touted as proprietary methods, not disclosed
by the testing labs. If such testing/assay methods were developed and made
available for most herbs, the onus of quality would then fall squarely on the
manufacturers. but as things stand today, it's the government (in most
countries) that is found lacking in such development initiatives.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Excessive control is ofcourse exercised by immediate banning
of herbs, long in use by the public in various parts of the world. These are
more of knee-jerk reactions to a public outcry (remember Ephedra, Kava).
Political lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry also plays a part, but hey,
guess what, two can play at that game.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>That leads to the third and final point I would like to make -
public perception of the herbal industry. While there are some excellent
professional and industrial associations/organizations doing good jobs, the fact
is everybody is looking at a different direction. Conservation, industry and
regulations, clinical safety/pharmacology and basic research are all different
facets of the same field. I have yet to see a common platform where
representatives from all these branches can come together or even coordinate
their individual efforts from their respective setups towards a more visible
face of the herbal profession. That may be one of the reasons that the general
public has little patience with herbalists when they speak up and then go home
to have ginger tea with some energy bars for that irritating cold.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>J P S Kohli (B. Pharm)<BR>Business Horizons<BR>Pharmaceutical
Publishers<BR>G-59, Masjid Moth, GK-2<BR>New Delhi - 110 048, INDIA</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Ph: (91) 921206 1554<BR>Fax: (91-11) 5163 7296<BR>US Fax: 1
(815) 642 4900</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>E-Mail: <A
href="mailto:info@businesshorizons.com">info@businesshorizons.com</A><BR>Alternate:
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href="mailto:businesshorizons@yahoo.com">businesshorizons@yahoo.com</A><BR>Web
Site: <A
href="http://www.businesshorizons.com">http://www.businesshorizons.com</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>