Technical Problems, Regulatory and Market Challenges in Bringing Herbal Drug into Mainstream of Modern Medicinal Practices

Awareness of people towards potentiality and lethal effect of modern and synthetic drugs has increased the interest towards herbal drugs. Herbal drugs have always proven their effectiveness in the treatment of severe diseases from the period of ancient civilizations. People believe in herbal drugs as a primary remedy for ailments instead of synthetic drugs. In recent years, the revival of herbal drugs has been observed due to lack of efficient modern therapies, issue of chronic diseases, side effect of chemical drugs, the resistance of microbes against a number of synthetic drugs and a big investment in drug discovery and development. In spite of huge benefit in healing diseases and less side-effect, herbal medicines are not key players in the current medical practices on a wide range as compared to allopathic medicines. In this review, we have highlighted and discussed the problems in herbal formulation development, regulatory and commercialization of herbal drugs and suggested possible solutions to bring up them into the mainstream of contemporary medical practices and healthcare.