Title: The Development of herbal medicines from medicinal plants

(Literature Review)

Abstract:
Herbal medicines have been used widely since the past centuries. It has been known as
an alternative medication for mild to severe illnesses. However, as time goes by and the
dominance of technology urges, the development of herbal medicines rapidly and continuously
progressed. At the same time, the accessibility of information and knowledge nowadays also
helps the rapid progression of the development of herbal medicines. The said researchers in
this review have developed herbal medicines from different herbal plants through various
methods and considerations. They developed herbal medicines that help people with illness
recover or ease the symptoms of their illness.

Introduction:
Herbal medicines are widely used as an alternative medication for mild illnesses or even
severe ones. Especially, for people who reside in rural areas which use herbal medicine as a
medication for their or someone’s sickness. Though, some herbal medicines are not
scientifically proven to be effective to cure or ease a specific illness. Sometimes it has a placebo
effect or it’s just because people who use it believe that they can be cured by that herbal
medicine. However, these herbal medicines can be developed into a medical drug that eases or
cures more severe illnesses as technology advances. These past decades, there has been
significant progress in advancing traditional herbal medicine research and development,
particularly in Asia, where there is an abundance of medicinal plants. 

Body:

The research and development of herbal medicines are widely progressing worldwide,
and it is still continuing. Our researchers restlessly continue to discover and develop admissible
and reliable herbal or herbal-based drugs. 
And these are the examples of different researchers that successfully developed herbal
medicines.
H.-S. Park et al. performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects
of Panax ginseng on obesity in animal models. Sixteen studies were included in the review. The
meta-analysis showed that oral administration of P. ginseng is effective against weight gain,
particularly in the obesity model induced by a high-fat diet. The analysis showed that while P.
ginseng improved serum lipid profile in the animal obesity model, its processing method may
affect treatment outcomes. 
In the study of L. Yu et al., the extraction of the bioactive ingredient glycyrrhizic acid
from Glycyrrhiza glabra was successfully optimized using a mathematical modeling approach.
The Glycyrrhiza glabra plant is one of the most widely used traditional medicines in China,
mainly for stimulating the spleen, replenishing qi, and clearing away heat and toxic substances
to treat diseases such as weakness of the spleen and stomach, coughs, and phlegm. The
authors demonstrated that the combinational method of genetic algorithm and artificial neural
networks provides a reliable and accurate strategy for designing and optimizing glycyrrhizic acid
extraction from Glycyrrhiza glabra.
National Integrated Research Program on Medicinal Plants (NIRPROMP) developed a
lagundi-based cough medicine in tablet form and launched clinical trials in the late 1980s
through scientific and clinical tests, the research team identified four active ingredients of
lagundi and found the effect of each: (1) as a relaxant of the air passages in the lungs; (2) as an
anti-histamine; (3) as an anti-inflammatory; and (4) as an anti-asthmatic. . And by 1993,
researchers had successfully developed a lagundi-based cough medicine in tablet form and in
1999, NIRPROMP successfully altered the formulation for lagundi cough tablets into a lagundi
cough syrup, which retains all the medicinal properties of the tablets, but is in a form that is
easier to administer. 

Conclusion: 

In conclusion, there is meaningful progress of researchers in developing various herbal

medicines. These developed herbal medicines are very beneficial to every human being today
or in the future. The developed herbal medicines are worth trusting because it is critically
examined and investigated by the professionals. And has gone through deliberate examination
and experimentation. The advancement of these herbal medicines also helps future scientists
or researchers have the idea and basis of formulation or chemical compounds in developing
herbal medicines. 

Recommendations:
The development of herbal medicines is very beneficial to us especially those who are
needy or poor. Thus, our government should support and recognize the development of these
medicines. Through simple innovations and conservation of herbal plants can help the
researchers or the medical drug developers have a sufficient supply of materials needed. 

References:
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2019/4935786/

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