Standardization of Nothapodytes foetida

In the past few decades there has been an exponential growth in the field of herbal medicine due to its natural origin, minor side effects, and are considered to be safe. Commercialization of the manufacture of herbal medicines to meet this increasing demand has resulted in decline their quality, primarily due to a lack of adequate regulations concerning to this sector of medicine. The need of the hour is to evolve a systematic approach and to develop well-designed methodologies for the standardization of herbal raw drugs and their formulations. The standardization of the herbal drugs is essential for assuring the therapeutic effectiveness of the herbal drugs. Nothapodytes foetida (Wight) Sleumer (Family Icacinaceae) is an endangered medicinal plant that contains pyrrolo quinoline alkaloid, camptothecin (CPT). The cellular target of CPT is DNA topoisomerase I, an enzyme involved in DNA replication. Camptothecin has been shown to be effective in the complete remission of lung, breast, uterine and cervical cancer. However, no scientific standards or pharmacognostical and phytochemical parameters are yet available to ascertain the identity and to determine the quality of N. foetida.