Development of standardized materials for the manufacture of herbal remedies and vehicles appropriate for their applications

Abstract

The objective of this project is the development of standardized vegetable extracts from national medicinal plants for use as materials in herbal remedies and cosmetics and also for use in various kinds of colloidal vehicles and their possible pharmaceutical forms. Standardized extracts will be defined as those vegetable components which are of a defined origin and within the quality guidelines laid down by the National Agency for Health Vigilance, Anvisa, and the industrial and laboratorial manipulation of which adhere to operational procedures laid down in norms accepted by the Ministry of Health and the chemical standardization of which is established by the application of known biological markers/active principles. In the first stage of the project five plants from the national flora will be studied: andiroba (Carapa guayanensis); marcela (Achyrocline satureioides); pau ferro (Caesalpinea férrea); carajirú (Arrabidaea chica); cherimoya (Annona muricata); melão-de-são-caetano (Momordica charantia). Qualitative phytochemical characterization will also be done on extracts of each of the species and tests of formulations with these extracts in colloidal vehicles (creams, gels, lotions, syrups, and others). The work will be carried out on the company’s premises and in the phytochemistry laboratory of the Institute of Chemistry in the Paulista State University, Unicamp, and the preliminary toxicological trials in the Pluridiscipline Center for Chemical Research, CPQBA, in UNICAMP. (AU)