The Unani Pharmacopoeia of India (Part-1, Volume-6)

The Unani System of Medicine has a long tradition of service in India This system, though originated in Greece around 2500 years ago, was developed to great heights in Arab and Persian lands during the eighth and thirteenth century Unani Medical System got enriched by imbibing what was best in the contemporary systems of traditional medicines in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Persia, India, China and other Middle East countries.
2 In India, Unani System of Medicine was introduced by Arabs and soon it took firm roots. The Indian medical scholars developed it to greater heights. In post-independence era, Unani Medicine was not only recognized by Government of India as an Indian system of medicine but also got and continues to receive increasing governmental support and funds for its multidimensional and scientific development. At present the system forms an integral part of the country's national health care delivery system.
3. In recent years there has been increased worldwide interest in Unani Medicine Similarly demand for Unani drugs is also growing internationally In view of this trend, the Government of India have been making concerted efforts to validate the system on scientific and ensure quality, efficacy and safety of the Unani drugs. The manufacture of Unani drugs is being regulated by Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. To control the quality of these drugs the Government has made it mandatory for the manufacturers to adopt Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).
4. With the setting up of a separate Department of ISM & H, now known as Department of AYUSH, increasing attention is being paid to evolving pharmacopoeial standards for Unani drugs. The pace of the work has also been accelerated. And currently, the work of laying down pharmacopoeial standards for more than 5000 drugs of Indian Systems of Medicines (ISM), of both plant and animal origin, is in full swing Government of India have identified 29 drugs testing laboratories across the country to take up the work on single drugs and formulations during the Eleventh Five Year Plan, and to publish the subsequent volumes providing data on pharmacopoeial standards for various drugs investigated.

In order to maintain uniformity of standards for the Unani medicines produced by variou manufacturers in the country, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has already published five volumes of the Unani Pharmacopoeia of India containing 198 monographs of single plant drugs. These plant components are used stand alone or in combination with other standardized plant parts. In continuation to this tank undertaken by CCRUM, I am pleased to know that yet another volume, Volume VI of the Unani Pharmacopoeia of India containing 48 single drugs standardized and compiled has been cleared by the Unani Pharmacopoeia Committee for publication. The single components of the plant origin are based on various parts of the plant including seeds, roots, leaves, heart wood, gum, stem bark, flowers, etc. which are widely being used in combinations for various drugs based on Unani Medicine. I acknowledge the hard work put in by the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine and Unani Pharmacopoeia Committee in identifying these drugs for publication in this volume. All efforts have been made to give the correct information and Pharmacognosy details of the single component. The vernacular names in various regional languages for each such plant part has also been recorded in order to make it easy for people to identify the actual component in a drug. The dosage forms and the marker compounds identified from the literature have also been included as per the requirement.
I do hope that the publication of Volume VI of the Unani Pharmacopoeia of India will go a long way to help the Unani drug manufacturing industry in maintaining the minimum standards prescribed in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940 and that required in the good manufacturing practices (GNP) as a mandatory requirement for these drugs.