The difficulty in conducting animal and human trials is the biggest impediment to developing science-backed, natural-products medicine.
Unlike modern medicine doctors, herbal medicine practitioners routinely recommend products that combine herbs. Many popular herbal formulations are combinations of several herbs and minerals. The product formulations are based on principles of ancient herbal medicine.
Bioactive medicinal molecules in plants vary according to strain, species, geographic distribution, soil type, and cultivation practices. Herbal medicine manufacturers face the challenge of the rarely uniform concentration of molecules in plants, making replication difficult. Therefore, testing these combinations for safety and efficacy becomes complicated, and achieving consistent test results and outcomes is challenging.
Natural products medicine – conducting clinical trials
Another impediment is the availability of suitable subjects for a double-blind, placebo-controlled human trial. These barriers make natural product manufacturers hesitant to launch human trials. Furthermore, conducting a human trial is complex, time-consuming, and expensive.
Nowadays, much animal testing can be replaced by testing drugs on live human tissue bio-printed using 3D bioprinters. This enables scientists to safely conduct early-stage trials on human tissue, with no ethical or cultural implications.
3D bioprinters and live tissue modeling have driven a surge in demand for 3D cell and tissue products. According to BCC Research, a market research agency, the demand for this tissue is estimated to reach $2.2 billion by 2019. A three-dimensional tissue model lies at the heart of bioprinting.
Research institutions are primarily engaged in tissue modeling work. For instance, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has created a mini brain organoid with neurons and other critical cellular compositions of the human brain.
3D printing of living tissue could begin on an industrial scale as early as the next decade. This will significantly enhance pre-clinical drug and other material testing on live human tissue, and additional applications will emerge over time.
Some bigger pharmaceutical, biotech, and cosmetic manufacturers have begun leveraging this technology to test[2] their products. BASF, the German company, has also agreed with a French biotech company specializing in bioprinting tissue. BASF will utilize this technology to enhance its skin model, “Mimeskin.” This is claimed to be the closest equivalent to human skin’s original physiological tissue.
It is important to note that the agreement between L’Oréal and Organovo includes testing nutraceutical formulations. The deal between Nestlé and L’Oréal and other similar contracts indicate that 3D bioprinted human tissue will be used to test nutraceutical formulations from now on. This should open the way for manufacturers of natural products to utilize this technology as well. This disruptive technology may finally be making an impact in this industry.
While the debate on technological advancements and the subsequent scientific support for herbal products continues, many people desire to better understand the properties of major herbs and plants used by humans in everyday life.
Herbs are increasingly being considered as a source of new drugs. Drug discovery from chemical sources is becoming increasingly difficult, and the cost of discovery is also rising, leading to this shift back to natural products.
The popularity of organic and herbal food, herbal beauty care, and medicinal products is rising. This is driven by a widespread belief that herbal solutions have minimal to no side effects. This is despite ongoing questions about quality control and good manufacturing practices in the natural products industry, which continue to be raised by both consumers and regulators.
Check out my books on herbs on Amazon (https://amzn.to/2Xyv78a)
#herbs and spices, #encylopedia of herbs, #alchemy of herbs, #detoxification-alternate medicine, #herbal medicine
Sudhirahluwalia, Inc. (https://bit.ly/4kS1Pg1) offers content creation and business consulting services.