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Current status and future perspective of external herbal dispensaries preparing traditional herbal medicine in South Korea: the first National-Wide Survey results
Current status and future perspective of external herbal dispensaries preparing traditional herbal medicine in South Korea: the first National-Wide Survey results
- Source :
- BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- BioMed Central, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Background An external herbal dispensary (EHD) is a type of pharmacy that provides various types of personalized herbal medicines (PHMs) to other traditional Korean medicine (TKM) institutions. Such dispensaries were legalized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MoHW) in 2008 in South Korea. The purpose of this study is to understand the current status of the EHD facilities and their quality controls and compare them with the good manufacture practice (GMP) guidelines to contribute to the establishment of the safety and quality control criteria for PHMs. Methods We contacted 107 EHD representatives or people in charge of the preparation of PHMs (TKM pharmacists) and invited them to complete a survey questionnaire; of the total, 81 responded. The survey questionnaire was developed in 3 stages: drafting, revision by external experts, and final editing. It consisted of 20 questions covering 3 sections: basic characteristics of EHDs, facility, and quality control. The survey was hosted online from December 2017 to January 2018 as guided by the MoHW. Results The completion rate was 75.7% (n = 81). In terms of facilities, the five facilities (water supply, manufacture, pest control, hygiene management and warehousing) that corresponded to the legal requirements of EHD were mostly equipped, but the types of facilities and equipment differed. Two facilities (sterilization and cross-contamination that were not legally required for EHD were found to have mostly pharmacopuncture-EHD (P-EHD), but hardly any herbal medicine-EHD (H-EHD). In our findings regarding quality control of non-medicinal herbs, sensory evaluation that included checks for foreign bodies and deterioration were conducted. In terms of the quality control of herbal medicines, residual pesticides and heavy metals tests were performed and for pharmacopuncture, pH, salinity, sterility, and endotoxin tests along with gross examination were performed. In the end, we found that 6 of the 38 standard items as required by the Korea GMP were suitable. Conclusions In this study, detailed information for each existing EHD law was determined through a nationwide questionnaire. Moreover, the basis for its reflection in additional legal standards should be introduced so that safe herbal medicine can be prepared in EHDs.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
media_common.quotation_subject
Herbal Medicine
Personalized herbal medicine
Survey result
Pharmacy
Health Services Accessibility
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Hygiene
Completion rate
South Korea
Surveys and Questionnaires
Republic of Korea
medicine
Humans
Quality (business)
Survey
media_common
business.industry
Traditional Korean medicine
Quality control
External herbal dispensary
Medicine, Korean Traditional
030205 complementary & alternative medicine
Dispensary
Cross-Sectional Studies
Complementary and alternative medicine
Sterilization (medicine)
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
Family medicine
Drug and Narcotic Control
business
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 26627671
- Volume :
- 20
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b7f2659f2997a05262558576dd24a66a