The use of plants in pharmacotherapy dates back several centuries. Herbal medicine usually relied on tradition and generally is only weakly supported by empirical data. The belief of herbal drugs being much safer than synthetic drugs has gained popularity in recent years and led to remarkable growth on phytopharmaceutical market.

In order to be valuable herbal medicinal products are currently expected to gather comparable standards concerning the assessment of efficacy, safety, biopharmaceutical quality, and understanding mechanism of action similarly, to synthetic drugs. Nevertheless, these requirements are rarely fulfilled. Opposite to synthetic drugs herbal medicines were long time weakly investigated and considered as traditional healing methods not necessary to serious investigation. Moreover, it is necessary to note that herbal medicines, because of complex content, are more difficult to investigate that chemical substances.

The advances in analytical technology have led to discovery of many new active constituents and an ever-increasing list of putatively active constituents. We observe currently growing tendency to investigate pharmacokinetics parameter of herbal substances. Establishing the pharmacological basis for efficacy of herbs is a constant challenge. Of particular interest is the question of bioavailability to assess to what degree and how fast compounds are absorbed after administration of herbs. Moreover, we are observing growing tendency to elucidate the molecular mechanism of action if herbal medicines. Modern biotechnology is nowadays often applied to search for pharmacological points of action oh herbals directly in the cells.

A better understanding of the pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, and molecular mechanisms of action of phytopharmaceuticals can help in designing rational dosage regimens and also reasonable prediction of possible interactions between herbal and synthetic medicines.

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1. Molecular aspects of herbal medicinal products activity and interactions with synthetic drugs on the central nervous system level