Quality control of aromatic drugs reported in European Pharmacopoeia 3rd edition

The apparent current explosion of interest and commercial activity in the area of herbal products should be followed by accurate quality control. In this work, the authors carried out the specific quality assays of all the aromatic drugs reported in European Pharmacopoeia. For each drug, several samples of different brands were bought in pharmacies, herbalist's shops, or supermarkets. The worst results were obtained in the assay for the essential oil content and this is very negative as the medicinal activities of these drugs are ascribed to their essential oil content. The samples of different brands yielded very different results from a qualitative point of view. In most cases, the analyzed samples were very far from the acceptable qualitative standards that they definitely lacked any health benefits. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.