Mycotoxins: the silent killers inside herbal drugs. A critical review of the literature

Abstract

Author(s): Ajay Kumar Gautam*, Shubhi Avasthi** and Rekha Bhadauria

Herbal drugs can be defined as the use of medicinal plant preparations as therapeutic practices that have been in existence, often for hundreds of years, before the development and spread of modern medicine and are still in use today. Despite the introduction of antibiotics since the 1940's, even 80% of the population today relies on indigenous medicinal plants as well as on the drugs. Since, herbal drugs are of plant origin, these are often deteriorated by various fungi before harvesting, and during handling and storage and these fungi during growth produces mycotoxins, which are harmful for consumer’s health. This fungal and mycotoxin deterioration of herbal drugs not only posing health effects on consumers but also decreases their efficacy and medicinal potential which became one of the major reasons to lagging behind the Indian herbal drug industry. The present review is an important effort to describe the importance, present scenario, fungal and mycotoxin deterioration of herbal drugs.

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