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Abstract@#In the past 30-40 years, the use of herbal medicines, preparations and herbal finished products have extensively increased worldwide. The lifestyle and life quality of the world population have changed with the following longevity. People become a concern to use effective, qualitative, safety, with fewer side effects naturally derived medicine and products for healthcare, to protect and cure various diseases. Therefore, it is very essential to develop standards for medicinal plant materials and crude drugs, including herbal medicine and finished products. Many factors influence the quality, safety, efficiency, availability and popularity of herbal medicine. Among them, the quality of medicinal plant materials and supplementary compounds are very important.</br> In this paper, the reasons and requirements for the standardization of medicinal plant materials and crude drugs, permissible and limited quantities of the quality and quantity of biologically active compounds, as well as and contaminants and residues are described.
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Aims: To investigate the effect of food blends (plantain, soybean and ginger) on the blood glucose, lipid profile and haematological indices on streptozotocininduced diabetic rats.Methodology: A total of 35 rats of mean body weight 219.07g separated into7 groups (5 per group) where inducedby a single intraperitoneal (I.P) injection of streptozotocin(0.1g dissolved in 5mlof freshly prepared sodium citrate buffer 0.1M, pH 4.5) at a dose of 40 mg/kg body weight after fasting for 12hoursand fed with flours/blends. The flours were produced from plant materials for different treatments/blends (blend A=100% unripe plantain, B=80% unripe plantain, 14% soybean, 6% ginger, C=70% unripe plantain, 26% soybean, 4%ginger, D= 60% unripe plantain, 38% soybean, 2% ginger, E= 50% unripe plantain, 50% soybean) and the phytochemicals and minerals content were determined.Blood glucose was determined at 5 days interval for 25days.Diabetes was confirmed inrats with blood glucose concentrations >200mg/dl. After 25 daysrats were anaesthetized with chloroform vapour and blood samples collected by cardiac puncture for haematology and lipidprofile determination.Results:The results showed that unripe plantain, soya beans and ginger in adequate proportion(C=70% unripe plantain, 26% soybean, 4%ginger or D= 60% unripe plantain, 38% soybean, 2% ginger) could help to reduce blood glucose, improve haematological parameters and lipid profile. Significant reduction was observed in the blood glucose level of rats fed blends C and D from 286 to 85mg/dl and 307 to 90mg/dl respectively at the end of experiment. These results also demonstrated that the inclusion of ginger at 6% causes rise in blood glucose level. Total cholesterol (TC) increased in all the blends. However, the lowest concentration of TC was observed in blends C and D. The highest packed cell volume (60%) and Haemoglobin (20g/dl) level observed in rats fed blend C was significantly higher than the normal control fed conventional feeds. The increase in packed cell volume (PCV) (50%) and Hb (17g/dl) in diabetic rats demonstrated that the formulated blend C was able to raise PCV and Hb above 50% and 17g/dl (Normal controlNC) respectively. Significant increase (P<0.05) in low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) was also observed in all the blends with blend C having the least (4.0mg/dl) close to NC (2.0mg/dl). Conclusion:From the results it is evident that blend C will manage and improve the health status of diabetic patients
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Objective To analyze the phytosterol content in plant materials commonly used in functional food in China.Method Thirty kinds of food commonly used as medicines and forty kinds of Chinese herbs were chosen as samples.The contents of phytosterols(?-sitosterol,campesterol,stigmasterol,?-sitostanol) were analyzed by GC methods established by our laboratory.Results The frequency of various plant materials used in functional food was different,e-g.hawthorn about 408 times and huangqi 342 times.Phytosterols were contained in all samples analyzed,but were different in contents,some less than 10mg/100g while some more than 380mg/100g.In most samples,?-sitosterol is the largest portion of total phytosterol.Conclusion The phytosterols are important functional ingredients in plant materials frequently used in Chinese traditional medicine.The data of phytosterol contents in plant materials are valuable for utilization and further study in functional food.