Despite the increasing use of herbal medicines, there is still a significant lack of research data in this fi eld, so that the WHO monographs are playing an increasingly important role. For example, in the recent WHO global survey on national policy and regulation of herbal medicines, of the 34 countries reporting that they do not have their own national monographs and use other monographs, 13 use the WHO monographs as an authoritative reference. Moreover, the format of the WHO monographs continues to be commonly used for developing national monographs. In the same survey, of the 46 countries that have already developed national monographs on herbal medicines, several countries, such as Armenia, Bhutan, Brazil, Malaysia, and Myanmar, reported having used the WHO format as a basis.
WHO monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants Volume 3
