Nations from the developing countries including India have largely been dependent on traditional systems of medicine. Such systems rely haeavily on medicinal plants. either as crude drugs or their extracts . Traditionally labeled as ‘effective and safe', these drugs produce therapeutic as well as adverse effects. The adverse affects and toxicities of herbal drugs pose a significant challenge to health care system. Some of these agents have also been shown to interfere with diagnosis and treatment of modern medicine. The efforts led by herbal drug companies, pharmaceutical & and medical institutes as well as drug information centres to provide information and create an awareness on herbal drugs are far from adequate. ‘‘ Keeping in view of the ever growing market and concern for the safety of herbal drug usage, creation of Herbal Drug Information Centers (HDICs) will be the most appropriate step. In fact, HDICs are non-existent in India. India being a country with several deep-rooted traditional systems of medicine relying to a great extent on the herbal drugs is an ideal place for such initiatives

The HDICs should be established with the following objectives in mind. The objectives are

1. To provide therapeutic information to the public and health-related professions on herbal drugs / their constituents or their formulations.

2. To coordinate the efforts in identifying and reporting the adverse drug reactions from the herbal preparations.

3. To Assist in the selection / identification of traditional drugs for safety assessments.

4. To Educate the general public on safe use of herbal drugs.

5. To advise the government organizations on matters related to herbal drugs.

6. To provide information on the analytical, phytochemical and pharmacological aspects of the herbal drugs to the interested institutions and persons and finally

7. To promote effective utilization of the plethora of information on medicinal plants.

Benefits

The creation of HDICs will be nothing short of being complimentary to the government efforts to preserve the wealth of traditional health systems. Furthermore, it will also be helpful in pharmacovigilance of herbal dugs and their products.