Synergy Research: A New Approach to Evaluating the Efficacy of Herbal Mono-drug Extracts and Their Combinations

Abstract

Synergy research is a new approach to phytomedicinal research. Three events have promoted this development:

1) The demand of the European drug law that the registration of drug preparations must include an assessment that each component of a herbal drug combination contributes to its overall pharmacological effect and therapeutic efficacy;

2) The availability of new high-tech analytical and molecular-biological methods and

3) A conspicuous change of paradigm in conventional medicine from a monodrug concept of treating diseases to a more multidrug therapy.