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Session 3: Preclinical studies of herbal and traditional medicine

Creation of National Cambodian Pharmacopoeia for the quality

control of the medicinal plants, the plant extracts and the plant-
based medicines

,
Sothea Kim*, Philippe Bessioud**, Bernard Fabre***, Mathieu Leti**,
Anne Mandeau**

*Joint Laboratory of Phytochemistry IRPF-UHS, University of Health Sciences, 73 Bd Monivong,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
**Institut de Recherche Pierre Fabre, 3 avenue Hubert Curien - BP13562, 31035 Toulouse, France.
*corresponding author: kimsothea@uhs.edu.kh

Background and Rationale: The medicinal plant is a drug: it has biologic activities, it
can show toxicity, and it is intended for a fragile population. In the light of this, the medicinal
plant needs scientific expertise (both botanical, chemical, pharmacological, clinical and toxi-
cological) and its distribution should be supervised. Traditional plant-based medicine takes up
an important place in Cambodian primary health care system. Several hundreds of plants are
indeed known for their prophylactic and healing properties. Yet, as for today, Cambodia has
a poor legislation toward traditional medicine. The Ministry of Health of Cambodia has ap-
proved national policy on traditional medicine. This policy concerns the implementation of
traditional medicine policy and highlights the need for quality, safety, and effectiveness of
traditional medicine practices.
Objectives: Our objective is to create the National Pharmacopeia of Cambodia which
will be tools to verify the conformity of both raw materials and plant based medicines. This
project is supported by Institut de Recherche Pierre Fabre (IRPF), World Bank, and Ministry of
Health of Cambodia.
Methods: The appointed plants have been selected through rigorous criteria, their mono-
graphs set up according to international standards. Analytical methods such as macroscopic
and microscopic study, Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC), chemical reactions, High Perfor-
mance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and UV-visible spectrophotometry methods are developed
for quality control of the raw material and the plant extract.
Results: Today, the first monographs of raw plants have been established at the Joint
Laboratory of Phytochemistry UHS-IRPF of the Cambodian University of Health Sciences (Herba
cum radice Andrographidis and Curcumae longae rhizome) and new monographs are cur-
rently being developed.
Conclusion: Each monograph composing the National Pharmacopeia of Cambodia will
be a tool for herbalists and plant based medicines producers and authorities to control the
quality of both the raw medicinal plant and the plant extract.
Key words: Pharmacopoeia, monograph, traditional plant-based medicine, quality con-
trol, Cambodia