The bounty of nature provides humans with a wide variety of plants, which we ingest every day as food. The same plants are also recognized as medicines in some indigenous knowledge systems, such as Ayurveda. Throughout the 21st century, researchers have discovered new compounds and drugs from plants used in traditional medicine. Today, the world mines the same plants and knowledge base for broader health benefits.
Sustainable natural products are in increasing demand as nutraceuticals, i.e. food ingredients that provide both nutritional and pharmaceutical benefits and promote health. This article was recently written by the ‘Plants for Health’ team at the Interdisciplinary University of Health Sciences and Technology (TDU), Bangalore and the Royal Botanic Gardens. conducted research Funded by the British High Commission. We found that of the 7,564 medicinal species listed in 11 reference sources, about a quarter (1,788 species) have been documented as food as well as medicine.
Food safety as medicine
Centuries of traditional use provide empirical support for the use of plants for medicinal purposes, but many plants and their derivatives have diverged significantly from their previous classical uses. New combinations, recipes, and uses can be found on the market today. For example, some herbs are available in pill form today, but in ancient times doctors may have recommended taking them in the form of a decoction in warm water. While traditional uses are generally safe as food, are these new avatars safe as medicines? How can the potential nutraceutical benefits of plants be identified? And are they safe as medicines? Who will regulate the use of plants that are not only food but also food?
Consider turmeric, a staple spice in Indian pantries. A wealth of information has been accumulated from traditional sources regarding the therapeutic value and culinary use of curcumin, and a large amount of information has been collected about both the whole rhizome and curcumin, which is one of the well-known biologically active substances. There are scientific studies of. From cancer to inflammation, researchers have studied turmeric’s potential in laboratory and clinical trials with many positive results. But what may not be obvious to the layman is that the doses we take turmeric as a spice are much lower than those used in therapeutic trials. It is rare to find warnings attesting to the fact that turmeric can have toxic effects if consumed in large amounts daily.
Of the 1,788 Indian edible plants identified by this study to be used as both food and medicine, just over 5% (or 139 species) were found in the Common Indian Nutritional Value Official Reference in 2017 Listed in the Indian Food Composition Table (IFCT). Ingredients used. The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia lists herbal substances derived from 334 different plants. The overlap in plant species between IFCT and Ayurvedic pharmacopoeia is over 90%, supporting why consumers believe that ethnic medicine can be consumed as food.
discord and conflict
Analysis of the content of 11 published references revealed two other problems with botanical listings. (i) an unusual level of inconsistency and ambiguity in the use of scientific names when referring to plants; (ii) a lack of information and contradictory evidence regarding the parts of plants used; In total, 21,033 different plant scientific names were found cited in the 11 reviewed publications. However, due to synonyms, these names refer to only 7,564 plant species, and this problem extends to the scientific literature as well. These scientific synonyms add further complexity for regulators. When consumers try to find relevant information. For researchers, it is useful when comparing discoveries related to a plant across different scientific studies.
citrus limon (L.) Ozbek, I see flowers. |Photo credit: Elena Chochkova (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The scientific names of many living organisms are binomial names called genus names.and the name of the species in that genus. for example, homo sapiens“Homo” is the genus and “sapiens” is the species name. For plants, the binomial name also includes the name of the person who first published the Latin name. However, this name is not fixed.
As researchers collect more DNA and chemical evidence, plant taxonomists are developing better insights into how plants are related to each other and making changes to taxonomic hierarchies accordingly. . In this way, researchers publish more than 10,000 changes to the scientific names of plants each year. Regulations on how plants are named also control how their subspecies, varieties, and hybrids are designated in scientific terms.
Therefore, what a “lemon” is for a non-specialist can probably be fully explained as follows. citruslimon (L.) Ozbek became a botanist. Unfortunately, the precision and nuance of such labeling is rarely reflected in food ingredient lists. For example, IFCT 2017 catalogs “lemon” simply as: citrus limondid not indicate the origin of the hybrid, nor did it mention the varieties of the listed species studied by the researchers. In fact, it was observed that inaccurate or ambiguous botanical names reached 100% in IFCT 2017 and 80% in Indian Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia.
The need for standard names for each part of a plant
This has significant implications for the regulatory process. It not only affects human health but also the conservation of biodiversity. Climate change may have an unequal impact on different plant varieties, their nutritional value, and biological activity.
Therefore, proper use of scientific nomenclature is necessary to ensure consistent and reliable regulation of plants and their derivative products. Because plants have little respect for national borders, and many of the plants consumed in India may have first taken root in other countries, for regulatory and legal purposes an international standardization of botanical nomenclature is essential. It is important to recognize these efforts.
Thanks to COVID-19, many of you have probably heard of Giloy or Ashwagandha. These names refer to two plants widely used in Ayurveda. However, few people realize that it is the cause of: Tinospora cordifolia (Wild) hook used by F. Gilroy & Thomson, and its root Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal used in Ashwagandha — both for medicinal purposes.
In the case of Giloy, medicinal uses of the leaves, fruits and roots are also mentioned in Ayurveda and folk medicine. However, such information about the relevant parts of each plant is rarely included on consumer product labels. When scientific names are listed, they are often incomplete or misspelled.
Dried ashwagandha root. |Photo credit: Piyush Kothari (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Which regulatory authority is it regulated by?
This is also important from a nutritional point of view. bhringaraj leaves(Eclipta prostrata (L.) L) is highly valued in Ayurveda for its ability to promote hair health and is marketed as such in several products. The same plant is also consumed as a green leafy vegetable in certain parts of India, but no nutritional information can be found in IFCT 2017.
There is no doubt that regulatory authorities are best placed to address issues regarding the toxicity of plant materials. So, who should regulate food products or pharmaceutical products? Furthermore, are plant-derived medicinal foods required to be regulated separately?
This is an important question because food and medicine are regulated by separate government agencies in the majority of countries, which do not recognize that the same plant may have different uses. In the six economies we studied (Brazil, China, the European Union, India, the United States, and the United Kingdom), there is a distinct regulatory authority for food and nutrition and a separate regulatory authority for drug testing and licensing. It was observed that There were some exceptions. For example, the UK health regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, recognizes ‘border products’ that straddle the line between food and medicine.
However, in India, food products are regulated by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and drug approvals are regulated by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).
Not surprisingly, drug regulators have much higher requirements for evidence of efficacy and safety than food regulators. There is no single simple approach to integrating evidence across multiple disciplines, but current attempts to share knowledge among regulatory agencies are also hampered by inconsistent or inaccurate use of botanical names. Masu.
The health and wellness industry is expected to grow in the coming years as affluent economies age and people’s incomes become able to support investments in natural plant products derived primarily from traditional knowledge. The use of standardized, globally accepted and regularly updated botanical nomenclature lists is essential to benefit both producers and consumers.
Megha is an associate professor of Ayurvedic biology and holistic nutrition, and Varun Subramanya is a scientist in traditional knowledge, data science and informatics, both at the Interdisciplinary University of Health Sciences and Technology in Bangalore. I’m a professor. Bob Allkin is Program Manager in the Digital Revolution Department at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
issued – October 29, 2024 5:30 AM IST
