Miriam Anders Apel
miriam.apel@ufrgs.br
Departamento de Produção de Matéria-Prima, UFRGS, RS, Brazil.

The quality control of herbal drugs and essential oils is a fundamental step to ensure the efficacy, safety, and quality of herbal products and commercial oils. This process involves a series of analyses aimed at ensuring that the plant raw material (medicinal plant or parts thereof, such as leaves, roots, flowers, as well as their derivatives) complies with the standards established by official compendia, such as the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia. The lack of quality control in herbal drugs is a critical issue, as it can compromise therapeutic efficacy, patient safety, and the credibility of herbal medicines. Among the problems caused by the lack of quality control are: incorrect identification of the plant, contamination, adulteration, and variation in the chemical composition of the raw materials.
 
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