Standardization of Unani Medicines is an impressive necessity, for their standardization proper methodology has to be worked out. As the biological activity is dependent upon the active constituents present in the single as well as compound formulations chemical standardization in very essential. But it very depending upon many factors such as: soil, climate conditions, region and country, age of the plant, harvesting conditions, drying and storage conditions etc. The compound formulation is also subject to many other variables such as the solvent used for leaching and extraction of herbs and method of concentration of the extract. During standardization of compound formulation it was observed that physico-chemical constants of the same formulation vary from batch to batch and from pharmacy to pharmacy. Determination and estimation of the chemical constituents becomes difficult due to the complex formulation and huge quantity of the sugar syrup base. It is suggested that the single drugs of the compound formulation should be first chemically standardized. The constituents should be properly extracted and the extracts should be properly assayed. The standardized extracts be used for the manufacture of compound formulations. Ultimately the compound formulation be chemically assayed and standardized for active chemical constituents. Thin layer chromatography, paper chromatography combined with densitometry, Gas-liquid chromatography and high pressure liquid chromatography could be much help.
Key words: STANDARDISATION, UNANI MEDICINES, AN APPRAISAL
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