HERBAL MEDICINES IN EUROPEAN REGULATION

Herbal medicines are assuming large use in the primary healthcare of i ndividuals and communities consistently with the growing interest in t raditional and alternative systems of medicine in many developed count ries. Consumer surveys show a positive public attitude to complementar y medicine. The regulation of herbal medicines is characterized by lar ge differences depending on the ethnological, medical, and historical background of each country. The WHO Guidelines for the Assessment of H erbal Remedies, adopted by the International Conference of Drug Regula tory Authorities (Ottawa, October 1991), contain the basic elements of legislation designed to assist those countries wishing to develop an appropriate legislation and registration procedure for herbal medicine s used. The WHO suggested that the different States should be urged: t o give correct importance concerning the utilization of their traditio nal systems of medicine; to make a systematic inventory and assessment of the medical plants used by traditional practitioners and by the po pulation; to intensify activities leading to cooperation between those providing traditional medicine and modern healthcare, respectively, e specially as regards the use of scientifically proven, safe and effect ive traditional remedies. The goals of these suggestions are to facili tate the scientific evaluation and the eventual integration of traditi onal medicine into the national healthcare system, critically assistin g an eventual rational use of traditional medicine through development of technical guidelines and international standards. (C) 1997 The Ita lian Pharmacological Society.