Herbal research is not focused and carry forward only based on the lacuna with its standardization criteria in terms of its actives and pharmacokinetic profile. In both the  cases it fails only because of the lower yield of the actives and the expensive process involved in separation of phytochemicals. Thus it always stays with basic research and huge publications are being done only with basic screening of the herbal extracts. Very rare cases it reaches clinical trials. But this area has to be focused more to identify novel molecules to replace certain existing allopathic drugs with severe side effects.

@ I think any traditional medicinal plant can be exploited commercially for herbal formulations only if it contain the desired chemical compound superior to the already known or in a modified form, cost effective, easy availability of raw materials and least or no side effects.  

very interesting question. there are many reason why it is still in slow process.

1. When a country or particular region possess high biodiversity, they don't have facilities to conduct advance research  such as efficacy, toxicology and clinical trials and when a country or region possess advance knowledge and facilities they don't have knowledge as well as source of valuable plants.

2. Development of herbal medicine to meet required standard  is time consuming and need good source of  funds. 

3.There are only very limited multidisciplinary research  on medicinal plants. People who are experts in Chemistry  search for chemical constituents with potential bioactivity. Agriculturist grow the plants for physical yield. biologist are trying to see the high in vitro and invivo bioactivity. Only very limited established multidisciplinary research groups. Therefore if we really want to comeout with  good final product with high efficacy,  it needs  combination of good source of plants, good agriculturists, chemists,  biologists and finally Ayurveda and western  medical practitioners to complete the whole process of drug development.

There are thousands of research studies already done on herbal medicine and there are thousand others that are ongoing. It is not the dearth of research work on herbal medicine that constitutes a problem. It is the translational aspect of this studies to acceptable medicinal products that is a major problem and indeed it is a complex problem. You could either isolate a compound that is pharmacologically active from a herb and develop it into a drug or market the formulation from the plant as a herbal product or dietary supplement. The former is the specialization of major pharmaceutical companies who normally invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring a drug to market after through research, several years of clinical trials and global marketing. The rate of success in this type of operation is less than 5% and only well established big pharmaceutical companies can embark on this. For products that are also formulated as herbal or dietary supplement, there is also a huge amount of money to be spent to carry out mandatory research as pre-requisite to even register the product with the regulatory body and to successfully launch the product in the market. Pharmaceutical companies are not very interested in this aspect of the business because of factors such as intellectual property right which may not be water-tight like it is for development of invented molecules for drugs. Besides, the income to be expected from this type of venture may be much lower than in the straight-forward drug business where a successful launch of a product could yield billions of dollar within a short period of time.

The problem is quite simple to understand, but unfortunately it appears not to be understood by those who should understand it, i.e. the academics who publish the results of their research on promising new herbal medicines:

If a promising result from a research study is published in the scientific literature without the authors first filing a patent specification to protect the intellectual property thereby created, no pharmaceutical / herbal medicine company will want to do anything with it. It is as simple as that.

This is because pharmaceutical companies are obliged by the regulatory authorities in the developed world to spend very large amounts of money on quality, safety, and efficacy studies before they will be permitted to launch their new medicinal product on the market. These studies are needed to protect patients from the unscrupulous "entrepreneur" whose principal objective is not to help restore health in a patient but to part the gullible and dim-witted from their cash.

If a company does decide to invest the money that is needed to develop and launch a new medicine, it wants and deserves to have the right to recover its investment by selling the product without having to compete with another company that may have simply "reverse engineered" the new product and produced a cheaper generic copy. By avoiding spending the large sums that need to be spent to develop a product, the generic manufacturer will always be able to undercut the price that the original manufacturer has to charge in order to recoup its investment in the new product. Patents provide the original manufacturer with the opportunity to recoup its investment without competition from generic manufacturers.

In countries where patent protection is not taken seriously, new medicines are unlikely ever to be developed. In countries where patent protection is taken seriously, new medicines are developed, but only if the anticipated sales will be sufficient to enable the company to recover the large sums it will need to invest in the research and development needed to satisfy the regulatory authorities.

I look it in different ways its more country specific problem with policy and encouragment for the development and awareness to use. Our traditional and recognised systems of medicine based on plants  are curing the diseases since ancent time. AUSH have all standardised products in the market as per their pharmacopoea

The original question is about why so many promising new drugs derived from herbal materials are not developed into commercial products. These promising new drugs have a long way to travel before they ever become "standardised products in the market as per their pharmacopoea".

Ultimately, irrespective of the country, the launch of a new medicine / herbal product only happens if a sound business case can be made to invest the money needed to carry out whatever research and development work is needed to satisfy the requirements of the regulatory authorities in the country in which the product is to be sold. That business case includes the assessment of the risk associated with the damage a competitor might inflict on the business. Patents should, but in some countries don't mitigate that risk. No company wants to spend any more money than is absolutely necessary battling with those who would infringe its patents.  So the business decision that is nearly always made is to not invest money on developing the promising new medicine because patent protection is not adequate or is non-existent.

There is so much research activity is going on throughout the globe on herbal medicine. The issues are 1. Biodiversity regulations, 2. No continuous availability of uniform quality raw materials, 3. Unhealthy market competition, 4. Slow healing effect of herbal medicine. 5. Heavy metals, pesticide residue and afflotoxin issues resulting in rejection of drug substance from foreign countries, 6. Not able to compete the allopathy drug market.

Overcoming all bottle necks herbal drug industry is moving forward.

Positive side of herbal medicine is serving unmet medical needs, less side effects, local people can access instantly with out any of cost.

There are many herbal products in China, and the curetive effects had been certified. But there were few articals plubished in English.

Herbal research is based on bioactive compounds  and its pharmacokinetic profile. Though these are less target specific but have less side effects. It is very true that all allopathic drugs can be cleaved and bidegrade by bacteria and can develop resistance against these therapeutic agents. Second long term usage of herbal products is safer, stable, protective and act as modulator of various activities. The most draw back of antibiotics is that they kill commensals and slow down natural resistance of the body.There is an immense need to convert herbal products into standardised therapeutic products.

More efforts are needed to bring back the old glory of herbal medicines by ensuring quality,safety and scientific  evidences. Medicines from the plants work in humans but fail in animal experiments Why? We have no answer  

Dear Annadurai

The answer to your query is Yes and No. In India and China several researchers both from the traditional and modern systems of medicine are trying to scientifically validate traditional claims (visit CSIR website and see TKDL site). By scientifically validating traditional methods, it is possible to internationalize traditional medicines instead of going in for new modern medicines which takes 10-15 years and costs more than 1.4 billion dollars. In addition, unless the drug generates a market of 500 million dollars per year, it will not be profitable for any company. You can imagine the investment and time required to introduce a new drug in the market with FDA approval.

China has successfully put their Chinese medicines into the market and their market share in the world market for herbal drugs is far more than India. This is where we are actually lagging behind. Though our Ayurvedic/Siddha medicines are as good as Chinese, we failed to cash on the herbal boom.

One more problem is the availability of good quality medicinal plants in sustainable quantities due to rapid loss of forests and cultivation in small areas. There are several problems associated with medicinal plants and their commercial utilization. Nevertheless, Governments are now investing on natural medicines and in future things will certainly improve.

I hope this information is helpful to you. I suggest you to visit WHO website and search fro herbal medicines/medicinal plants, you will get several interesting and informative articles/monographs/booklets etc.

Good luck.