TAXONOMIC EVALUATION OF MARKET SAMPLES OF MEDICINAL PLANT PARTS USED IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINES OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

Majority of the people in Pakistan cannot afford allopathic medicines and thus rely on traditional system of medicine i.e., Unani system that is mainly plant based. Now a day, on one hand lack of quality control, adulteration, substitution, improper storage, etc. decrease the efficacy of the traditional medicines and on the other hand there exists a lot of confusion regarding the botanical identity of many Unani drugs. As a result there is considerable difference of opinion as to which one among two or more plant species forms the official drug in Traditional Unani System of Pakistan. In view of the above confusion comparative study of medicinal plant species and market samples were carried out to find out what is the nature of the trade sample. In this regard about eight Unani crude herbal drugs i.e. 'Banafsha', 'Gul-e-babuna', 'Gul-e-gaozaban', 'Gul-e-ghafiz', 'Gul-e-khaira' , 'Samandarsok' , 'Shahtra' and ' Zafran' have been selected. Survey of major seven crude herbal markets was carried out and Price per Kg and source of procurement was investigated. Two samples from each market were subjected to further investigation. With regard to variability Gul-ebabuna was found to be the most adulterated or substituted as along with real 'babuna' (i.e., Matricaria recutita), 4 other species belonging to family Asteraceae were found in the market samples (i.e., Microcephala lam ellata , Tripleurospermum disciforme, Parthenium hysterophorus and Pulicaria species). Botanical identification of 3 drugs viz Samandarsok, Gul-e-ghafis and Gul-e-gaozaban was found to be incorrect. Correct identification was made consulting and comparing the descriptions given by Unani text. The correct species identified were Salvia plebeia for Samandarsok instead of Argyreia speciosa, Gentianodes olivieri for Gul-e-ghafis instead of Delphinium zalil and Echium amoenum for Gul-e-gaozaban instead of Onosma bracteatum Wallich. These drugs were found to be homogenous among the rest as no adulterant or substituent was detected. For the drug Banafsha (Viola odorata) and Gul-e-khaira (Althaea officinalis), the identified plant species were not found in the trade, instead other Viola species (i.e., V. canescens, V. kashmeriana, V. pilosa, V. stocksii and V. rupestris) for Banafsha and Alcea rosea (L.) Cav. for Gul-ekhaira were identified. For the drug Gul-e-babuna and Zafran, the original plant species were found along with other adulterant or substituents. It was concluded that today many of the medicinal plants available in the trade have ambiguous identification along with adulteration and contamination. Moreover labels on herbal products do not mention correct plant species, due to the lack of services of taxonomic or botanical expert in the pharmaceutical industries. Therefore for raising Unani system of herbal medicine to global standard, it is very essential that each component or the factor of the system should be critically studied and made perfect. There arises an urgent and ultimate need for standardization, starting from correct identification of plant material, elimination of adulteration and conductance of critical pharmacopoeial & pharmacological research.