Some Aspects of the Problem of Adulterated Herbal Medicines by the Illegal Addition of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients

Counterfeit drugs have become a widespread threat to the publics’ health [1]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) definition, a counterfeit drug is “a medicine which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source. Counterfeiting can apply to both branded and generic products and counterfeit products may include products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with insufficient active ingredients or with fake packaging” [2]. Also U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines a counterfeit drug as “a drug which, or the containers or labeling of which, without authorization, bears the trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint or device or any likeness thereof, of a drug manufacturer, processor, packer, or distributor other than the person or persons who in fact manufactured, processed, packed or distributed such drug and which thereby falsely purports or is represented to be product of or to have been packed or distributed by such other drug manufacturer, processor, packer, or distributor” [3]. Some counterfeit drugs contain active pharmaceutical ingredients with unknown doses [4]. WHO reported that about 10% of the global drug market is counterfeit. This is estimated up to 25-50% in developing countries [2,3].