Glossary

–Herbs : crude plant material which may be entire, fragmented or powdered. Herbs include the entire aerial part, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, roots, bark (stems) of trees, tubers, rhizomes or other plant parts.

–Herbal materials : include herbs and other crude plant materials. Examples of these other plant materials are gums, resins, balsams and exudates.

–Herbal preparations : herbal materials processed physically or biologically. These processes are mainly extraction, fractionation, purification, concentration and fermentation.

–Herbal crude drug : plant or its parts in an unprocessed state, in either fresh or dried condition whole or reduced in size by grinding or chopping.

–Organized crude drug : organ of plants having a specific cell structure such as leaves, bark, flowers, fruits and roots.

–Unorganized crude drug : products of plant showing no definite cellular structure and obtained as exudates (gum, resin, volatile oils…).

–Nutraceutical : any substance that is a food or part of a food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease.

–Herbal pharmacopoeia : book which has detailed informations about identification, habitat and chemical constituents of herbal products.

–Marker substances : reference substances that are chemically defined constituents of a herbal material. They may or may not contribute to the therapeutic activity.