Quality Control and Standardization of Traditional Drugs in Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Traditional drugs derived from herbs, animals and minerals are essentially crude drugs unlike western drugs which are usually in the pure state. In Korea, consumption of traditional drugs is expected to increase rapidly. The reasons are: Korea has legally adopted two medicare systems in tandem: one is western medicine and the other is oriental medicine. The recent government decision in which oriental medical practice, including traditional drugs are covered by medical insurance will most likely stimulate a large demand for traditional drugs by the public. In this regard, it is urgent for us to supply standardized herba1/anima1/mineral materials for traditional drug prescriptions. Moreover, better quality, i.e. high quality controlled traditional drug preparations should be prduced by manufacturers. With respect to modern technology, great effort has been made to improve standardization and the quality control system for traditional drugs. Recently we made a regulation on the “Standardization of Traditional Drugs” in which 384 items are listed beyond the 130 items listed in Korean Pharmacopoiae (5th ed.). In addition, a new regulation is being formulated to control health foods that do not have a distinct barrier between foods and traditional drugs. In fact, this caused an additional problem for the regulatory agency. However, we will continue to make all efforts to bring up the quality of traditional drugs in respect to modern scientific technology.