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What is the best way to briefly describe Charak products?
Charak produces healthcare products containing active principles derived from herbs and natural minerals. These products are formulated based on the principles of Ayurveda. Each product is made for a specific indication with dosage regimen that needs to be followed. The efficacy and safety for each product is proven with scientific clinical trials. |
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What are the ingredients of herbal products?
Large-scale manufacturing of herbal products requires the use of extracts in the formulation instead of raw herbs. These extracts are derived from specific quantities of the raw herbs as per the final product formula.
Recent advances in manufacturing technology and analytical procedures have now made it possible to produce large quantities of standardized herbal products that have a consistent composition and therapeutic effect.
Use of extract also ensures that unwanted contaminants like pesticides, microbes and heavy metals can be controlled in the final product. |
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Why do herbal products generally have less side effects?
Herbal medicines usually have less side effects because of four reasons:
- Most activity of herbal medicines depends on water soluble compounds that are easily eliminated in the urine and hence any side effects due to over dosage is avoided.
- Most of the active constituents are in a pre-cursor form that is enzymatically converted into the active form by the body as per the current need of the body. Hence this becomes a self-limiting step that reduces chances of side effects.
- Herbal products comprise multiple herbs. Each herb has an active ingredient in sub therapeutic dose. All these active ingredients combine to give a therapeutic effect. Because the therapeutic action of the product is not dependent on high concentration of a single ingredient it ensures lower side effects.
The only reason a person may develop side effects after consuming a herbal medicine is a allergic reaction to some ingredients. However these have also been taken care of in Charak products through evidence based clinical trials demonstrating efficacy and tolerance in human patients. Allergic reaction to a herbal product is usually reversible on stopping the usage of the product.
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How is it possible to ensure standardization in a herbal product?
Doctors have traditionally prepared small quantity of herbal products for a specific patient. But in the last few decades the increasing demand for herbal products has made mass production necessary. One of the main challenges with mass production was standardization to ensure that every product coming out of the factory has a similar composition resulting in predictable effects.
Advances in analytical techniques like High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and High performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) has now made it possible to find out the complex chemical nature of a herbal product. This advance in analytical techniques has now made it possible make standardized herbal products that can be demonstrated to have a consistent composition and therapeutic benefit.
The quality control standards that are commonly utilized to ensure standardization of herbal products are as below:
Foreign matter: The drug (whole herb or dried specified part) is spread over a piece of paper into a thin layer. It is examined under 6 times magnification and foreign matter picked out and weighed and the percentage recorded.
Moisture content
Extractive valuesDetermination of water-soluble or ethanol soluble extractive is used as a means of evaluating drugs which cannot be evaluated with other means
Total ash value and Acid insoluble ash
Volatile oil determination
Microbial counts
Assays to assess active constituents like glycosides and alkaloids.
Assays are done using 2 major methods
- Chemical methods using reagents and solvents
- Spectroscopic methods including colorimetric(measures light absorption by herbal extracts at different wavelengths) and fluorescence (measures emitted light from a herbal extract when it is passed thru specific kind of light)
The above methods comprise the most commonly applied analytical techniques for plants and plant extracts. All analytical methods used for plants have not be listed in this note
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Are herbal products made under good manufacturing standards?
Herbal products of Charak are manufactured in modern factories that have been certified for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). The World Health Organization (WHO) has also awarded us their coveted "WHO-GMP" certificate |
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Do herbal products conflict with allopathic medicines?
Traditional allopathic products definitely provide strong patient benefits and are an essential tool for doctors. However there are situations in clinical practice when a doctor cannot prescribe allopathic medicines due to lack of options OR potential adverse effects ORr specific patient restrictions. In such situations good quality herbal products offer a useful option from which patients can be benefited.
Adolescent menstrual disorders, polycystic ovarian syndrome & idiopathic male infertility are some examples where traditional allopathic medicines do not offer optimal benefits. |
