Evidence-based Herbal Medicine (PHG415)

This course aims to prepare students to deal professionally - on the basis of authentic proofs - with the growing need for the recruitment of herbal medicine. So, the course will include how to adopt the use of medicinal herbs either individually or in the form of herbal formulations or along with the modern synthetic drugs. The course topics will include mechanism of action of the herbal product based on the quality and proportion of chemical components, side effects, contraindications, and interactions with other herbs or conventional medicines or different foods. All this is to armor students with the professionalism required to provide high quality health service for the patients and society. The course will address comprehensive study of the natural medicines that affect the various organs of the body and the diseases that afflict them on the basis of the research and clinical data newly published in relevant scientific journals. The course will make use of the pharmacopeial parameters and the different analytical methods employed for the standardization of herbal medicines and their products along with the quality control tests for purity and freedom of heavy metals, mycotoxins, pollutants, etc. The course also will build the skills necessary for students to describe and determine the appropriate dose and dosage form for the patient as well as how to follow up the patient's response during the use of these herbal medicines.