Abstract

In order to meet the growing needs of the European Union medicinal and aromatic plants, Hungary is still one of the major exporters today, although earlier, until the 1980s, we were considered a great herbgrowing nation. Therefore, the development of the national medicinal and aromatic herb growing sector is an essential requirement for maintaining and developing our market position.

The natural conditions of Hungary favor the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants. There are more than 330 herbs in our country. About seventy percent of the drugs grown and harvested are exported. However, significant changes are needed in domestic sales and further processing in order to become a leading industrial sector. Hungary also possesses modern separation techniques and large instruments for analysis, which allow the proper analytical examination of drugs and the precise determination of their active substances. Our universities and research institutes are also prepared to study the active ingredients of herbs by molecular biological methods, which may allow the exact mechanism of action of bioactive substances to be determined and the herbs to be reassessed.

Our accession to the European Union the palette of products made from former herbs has significantly changed. From 2013, the category of medicinal product was discontinued, and the preparations were classified as either food or medicine. However, there are significant costs associated with qualifying as a drug, so drugs or extracts are largely added to dietary supplements. As a result, the strange situation is that dietary supplements are prohibited from making any health claims, even though the dietary supplement is actually not for the benefit of a healthy population, but for those who have a health problem or do not have suitable foods, which are rich in bioactive substances. The justification of phytotherapy must be demonstrated, depending on the state of the art. In the context of safe therapy, studies must follow the requirements of medicines and only then can they become herbal medicines. There is still much to be desired in this area in our country.

Classification as a drug is based on expensive animal tests and clinical studies. A new problem arises here, as herbal cure is currently part of the arsenal of complementary medicine. With few exceptions, clinical doctors do not use herbal therapies. Patients usually ask the advice of pharmacists, naturalists, and more rarely, dietitians.

At the Arteriosclerosis Research Group, at the II. Department of Medicine and Institute of Pharmacognosy several decades of biomedical research have served and serve the purpose of evaluating and reassessing the effects of plants used in folk medicine. Over the years, we have been searching for drugs, extracts, and medicines of natural origin that are useful in liver and intestinal diseases known in folk medicine, and are believed to have lipid lowering, antioxidant and immune stimulating effects. In the article, animal and human studies will be also presented.