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| Medicinal plants | Synthetic drugs |
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| Strengths | (i) Broad-spectrum,
(ii) Holistic-integrating emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects | (i) Long historical records | (i) Mechanism of active compound known, targeted | (i) Stringent in vivo studies |
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| Weakness | (i) Quality maintenance
(ii) Raw material adulteration issues
(iii) Possible toxic effect (if not well prepared)
(iv) Efficacy due to multiple ingredient/not single molecule dependent | (i) Mechanism complicated (or unknown)
(ii) Bioavailability and true efficacy in vivo | (i) (Long-term) side effect/s | (i) Short history (>200 years) |
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| Opportunities | (i) Second opinion
(ii) Low-cost production, free to use, less side effect
(iii) Amenable for genetic modifications for engineering plant metabolites can be helpful for developing a specific drug
(iv) Prospects for scalability and safety | (i) Antioxidant properties for chronic diseases, off-shelf remedies
(ii) Preservation of medicinal plant biodiversity in the world
(iii) Opportunity to developing countries
(iv) Oral formulation development | (i) Infrastructures available
(ii) Immediate gains | (i) Industries ready to absorb the drug for sale |
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| Challenges | (i) Quantification (dosage-not well defined)
(ii) Development of formulations for better bioavailability | (i) Harmonization to western medicine
(ii) Limited funds availability
(iii) Regulations
(iv) Skilled manpower | (i) New drugs development and validation take years | (i) Dominant by big pharma |
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