Abstract

A REVIEW ON COLLECTION OF HERBAL MEDICINE

Shivam Yadav* and Awan Kumar Pandey

Abstract

Herbal medicine has been extensively used in traditional and contemporary health systems because of its therapeutic activity and lack of side effects. The collection of medicinal herbs is an essential step in guaranteeing the efficacy and safety of herbal preparations. This review explores the methods adopted for the collection, identification, and conservation of medicinal plants, with a focus on sustainable harvesting to avoid depletions. A number of factors impacting the quality and potency of herbal drugs such as seasonality, geographical differences, and post-harvest management are discussed. The issues of overexploitation, habitat loss, and standardized protocols are also discussed. Regulations for policies ensuring ethical and legal collection of medicinal plants are explored. Incorporation of scientific authentication and conservation techniques is critical in the sustainable use of herbal materials. This review seeks to provide insights into optimum herbal medicine harvesting practices while fostering conservation of biodiversity and improving credibility of traditional medicine in contemporary medicine. Herbal medicine has long been the pillar of traditional medicine, and it has taken centuries to understand the full scope of the herbs available for use. The process of gathering the herbal medicine is a crucial factor in ensuring quality and safety of the product. This review seeks to present an overview of the collection of herbal medicine, such as the various ways of collection, the influencing factors on the quality of collected plant material, and regulatory guidelines for the collection process. A systematic literature search was performed using a range of databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. English-language publications from the last two decades were included in the review. The results of this review underscore the significance of proper collection procedures, such as sustainable harvesting, to guarantee the quality and safety of herbal medicine products. Regulatory guidelines and standards for herbal medicine collection are also mentioned, with an emphasis on the necessity of compliance with good agricultural and collection practices (GACP) and good manufacturing practices (GMP).

Keywords: Herbal medicine, Collection of medicinal plants, Sustainable collection, traditional medicine, Conservation, Pharmacognosy.