97 Article Info Article history Received 14 August 2020 Revised 5 October 2020 Accepted 7 October 2020 Published online 30 December 2020 Keywords Herbal products Medicinal-plant conservation Plant characterization Reverse pharmacology Traditional medicine Review article: Open access Challenges and opportunities for traditional herbal medicine today with special reference to its status in India Bushra Parveen*, Abida Parveen**, Rabea Parveen***, Sayeed Ahmad****, Minhaj Ahmad***** and Muhammad Iqbal  *Department of Pharmaceutical Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Jamia Hamdard (Deemed University), Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, India **Centre for Translational and Clinical Research, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Jamia Hamdard (Deemed University), Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, India ***Department of Biosciences, Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University), Jamia Nagar, New Delhi, 110025, India ****Department of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, School of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Jamia Hamdard (Deemed University), Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, India *****Department of Surgery, School of Unani Medical Education and Research, Jamia Hamdard (Deemed University), Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, India Formerly with Department of Botany, School of Chemical and Life Sciences, Jamia Hamdard (Deemed University), Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, India Abstract As per the definition approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), the term herbal medicine applies to all those medicines that occur in the form of plants, plant parts (such as roots, rhizomes, stem, bark, wood, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds or their active ingredients), herbal preparations, or the finished products containing these materials singly or in combinations. The major strengths of herbal medicine include absence of adverse side effects in general, long-lasting curative impact and, sometimes, cost-effectiveness. However, duration of treatment is relatively long and, in some cases, herbal drugs may react with modern medicine, if taken together. The cause of herbal medicine is currently suffering from (a) decline in species richness, (b) negligence towards plant systematics in higher education, (c) lack of cultivation practices and agro-technology for majority of medicinal and aromatic plants, (d) little financial support for research in conservation biology, (e) and shortage of sophisticated research facilities for quality control. Immediate steps required to be taken for protection and promotion of herbal medicine include (a) in situ and ex situ conservation of the fast-dwindling wealth of medicinal plants; (b) their large-scale cultivation, possibly under buy-back agreement with farmers; (c) authentication and characterization of medicinal plant species based on scientific parameters; (d) standardization and quality control of herbal products under preparation, and (e) generation of data on clinical evidence for efficacy and safety of herbal drugs. All these aspects are discussed in this review with special emphasis on the status and scope of traditional herbal medicine in the Indian sub-continent. Copyright © 2020 Ukaaaz Publications. All rights reserved. Email: ukaaz@yahoo.com; Website: www.ukaazpublications.com Annals of Phytomedicine 9(2): 97-112, 2020 Annals of Phytomedicine: An International Journal http://www.ukaazpublications.com/publications/index.php Print ISSN : 2278-9839 Online ISSN : 2393-9885 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21276/ap.2020.9.2.8 Corresponding author: Dr. Muhammad Iqbal Professor, Formerly with Department of Botany, School of Chemical and Life Sciences, Jamia Hamdard (Deemed University), Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi, 110062, India E-mail: iqbalg5@yahoo.co.in Tel.: +91-9873137770 1. Introduction ‘Herb’ is a specific term in the botanical literature, which applies strictly to non-woody vascular plants, such as the annual, biennial and some perennial crops (including most of the monocot species), which do not have persistent woody stems. However, in the world of pharmacy, the term is used in a wider sense, like a synonym of ‘plant’, and covering all herbs, shrubs and trees. The term Herbal medicine (also called Botanical medicine or Phytomedicine), encompasses all those medicinal products, which are prepared by using plants, plant parts or plant products, with a minimal or no chemical manipulation (Iqbal, 2018). In a broader sense, herbal medicines include herbs, herbal materials (leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, stems, woods, barks, roots, rhizomes or other plant parts and active ingredients), herbal preparations as well as the finished products that contain plants, plant parts or other materials of plant origin or combinations thereof as their main ingredients (WHO, 2019). Plants produce primary metabolites that are directly involved in processes of their own development, growth and reproduction, but a large number of secondary metabolites (also known as natural products) are then synthesized from primary metabolites by chemical transformations of molecules through a number of enzymatic reactions (Thangavel et al., 2014). According to their biosynthetic pathways, secondary metabolites are classified as (a) phenols, (b) terpenes and (c) alkaloids. Phenols (or phenolics) consist of a hydroxyl group (-OH) bonded direct to an aromatic hydrocarbon group, and are classified further usually on the basis of the number of carbons, and have flavonoids as their largest