Methods of preparation

ABSTRACTHerbal medicine has been used for thousands of years. It is estimated that 80% of world population rely on traditional herbal medicine for primary health care. In recent years, herbal remedies have been considered as dietary supplement for disease prevention and as alternative/complementary medicine. A wide variety of herbal medicines are readily available in the market all over the world. With the rising utilization of herbal products, safety and efficacy of herbal medicine have become a public health concern. Adverse health effects associated with herbal products could be attributed to both inherent toxic effects of herbal medicine and toxicities induced by adulterants/contaminants. Increasing evidence, regarding side effects of herbal medicine, has highlighted the demand and necessity of toxicological studies for herbal products. Toxicology constitutes an essential role in the development of herbal medicines. With the advancements of analytical techniques and molecular technology, coupling with the conventional test systems, the ‘-omics-’ technology makes a significant contribution to the predictive and preclinical toxicology of herbal medicine. In this chapter, side effects related to herbal medicine and its adulterants/contaminants are summarized. The recent application of ‘-omics-’ technology for toxicological evaluation of herbal products is also illustrated.Keywords: Modern herbal medicines, Types of herbs, Methods of preparation, Evaluation of herbal drug products

Targeting drug to brain is becoming a challenging task for inventors of advanced drug delivery systems. Because the blood brain barrier acts as a barricade for many chemical moieties to cross it for treating CNS disorders. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are the effective lipid based colloidal carriers which were introduced as an alternative to the conventional carriers such as micro emulsions, liposomes, microparticles and nanoparticles based on synthetic polymers or natural macromolecules. SLNs were introduced to overcome problems of polymeric nanoparticles by putting forward physiological safe lipids in place of polymers to prepare lipid nanoparticles, a novel formulation technique came into light. An approach undertaken here is to focus on various production methods for preparation of SLNs.