HerbalEGram: Volume 2

by Mark Blumenthal

The World Health Organization (WHO), with financial support of the Nippon Foundation (Japan), is developing a new set of monographs on medicinal plants that are commonly used in Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union and Countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CCEE). In NIS and CCEE countries numerous medicinal plants are grown, and not only consumed domestically, but also exported to other countries. In fact, the export of medicinal plants is a major source of income for these countries. Many NIS and CCEE governments are therefore highly motivated to ensure quality control of medicinal plants and medicinal plant materials, in order to maintain and increase the credibility of their products on national and international markets. However, these countries lack technical expertise, skills, and knowledge in this area, as well as resources for conducting research, and establishing national standards and quality assurance measures.

WHO’s forthcoming global survey on traditional medicine (currently in press) has confirmed the need for support to NIS and CCEE in this area. Of 11 NIS countries, 9 strongly requested WHO support for information-sharing with other WHO Member States on herbal medicine regulatory issues. Ten NIS countries have expressed a desire for WHO to provide them with general guidance for research and evaluation of traditional medicine. Other requests relate to support for national capacity-building in establishing national regulation of herbal medicines and provision of information related to herbal medicines via databases.

WHO has already amassed considerable experience in developing technical documents for traditional and complementary medicine, including monographs on selected medicinal plants.1 NIS and CCEE would be invited to become fully involved in the development of these new monographs. The monographs would serve as an authoritative source of information for national drug regulatory authorities and would be published in both English and Russian.

The new NIS monographs will follow the same format developed for the previously published WHO monographs and will include data on identification and quality control characteristics of each plant as well as up-to-date therapeutic data and references. WHO has published two volumes of monographs on medicinal plants in general use worldwide.1 The third volume is expected to be published soon and a fourth is still in the editorial process.
Many of the plants to be covered in the new monographs for the NIS are in fairly common use globally: cornsilk, horsetail, linden, plantain, oregano, sage, yarrow, and others (see Table 1); however, a monograph is also planned for sea buckthorn fruit, a medicinal plant with widespread use in Russia and of rapidly increasing importance in the European and North American cosmetics and natural health products markets.

In a letter to various experts, Xiaorui Zhang, MD, Coordinator of Traditional Medicine at the WHO’s Department of Technical Collaboration for Essential Drugs and Traditional Medicine, invited experts worldwide to supply data on the medicinal plants being considered for new monographs, together with detailed copies of the references to the literature and, if possible, color photographs of live or dry medicinal plants in either print, slide, or digital form.2 Format and language for the submission of references/information are specified in her letter. Parties interested in submitting data for consideration for inclusion in the new monographs may contact WHO by e-mail (trm@who.int) to request these specifications and instructions on submissions.

All of the plants planned for the new NIS monographs are shown in Table 1 and reflect a consensus of a WHO working group that met in Armenia in March 2005. The letter from WHO did not estimate when these new monographs will be completed, but based on the amount of information they usually contain, and the need for peer review by a group of international experts, it will probably be at least 2007 before they are available.

References

1. World Health Organization. WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. Volume 1: 1999; Volume 2: 2002; Volume 3: In press.

2. Zhang, X. WHO monographs on medicinal plants commonly used in the newly independent states [letter]. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; April 14, 2005.