WHO Monographs on Selected Medicinal Plants – Volume 2 (2002) continues the work begun in Volume 1 and contains 30 additional medicinal plant monographs. The publication was developed through a large international collaboration involving WHO experts, national drug regulatory authorities, pharmacists, scientists, and traditional medicine specialists. The goal is to provide reliable scientific information on the safety, efficacy, quality control, dosage, contraindications, pharmacology, and traditional uses of widely used medicinal plants.
The introduction notes that Volume 1 had already been adopted and recommended by governments and regulatory bodies, including the European Commission and Canada, and that several countries used the WHO format to develop their own medicinal plant standards. Volume 2 expands this work by adding additional medicinal plants commonly used throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, and other regions.
As with Volume 1, the book clearly separates:
- Uses supported by clinical studies
- Uses recognized in pharmacopoeias and traditional medicine systems
- Folk medicine uses lacking sufficient scientific evidence
This makes the publication particularly valuable because it distinguishes between traditional claims and evidence-supported medicinal applications.
Examples of plants covered include:
- Marshmallow Root (Althaea officinalis)
- Andrographis (Andrographis paniculata)
- Dong Quai / Chinese Angelica (Angelica sinensis)
- And many other medicinal plants used in traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, European herbalism, and other traditional medical systems.
The monographs provide:
- Botanical identification
- Cultivation and geographic distribution
- Quality-control standards
- Chemical constituents
- Medicinal uses
- Experimental pharmacology
- Clinical studies
- Contraindications
- Drug interactions
- Adverse reactions
- Dosage recommendations
- References to scientific literature
making it a highly authoritative herbal medicine reference.
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