Everything about Active Ingredient totally explained
An
active ingredient (AI), also
active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) or
bulk active, is the substance in a
drug that's
pharmaceutically active. The term is similarly used in
pesticide formulations where
active substance is also used. Some medications may contain more than one active ingredient. The traditional word for the API is
pharmacon (from Greek: (φάρμακον), adapted from
pharmacos) which originally denoted a magical substance or
drug.
A
dosage form of a drug is traditionally composed of two things: The API, which is the drug itself; and an
excipient, which is the substance of the tablet, or the liquid the API is suspended in, or other material that's pharmaceutically
inert. Drugs are chosen primarily for their active ingredients.
In
phytopharmaceutical or
herbal medicine the active ingredient be a result of the interplay of a variety of constituents both acting on a pathogen and upon a variety of body systems involved in immunity. The API may be either unknown or may require
cofactors in order to achieve therapeutic goals. One way manufacturers have attempted to indicate strength is to engage in
standardization to a
marker compound. However standardization hasn't been standardized yet: different companies use different markers, or different levels of the same markers, or different methods of testing for marker compounds. For instance
St. Johnswort is often standardized to the
hypericin which is now known not to be the "active ingredient" for antidepressant use. Other companies standardize to
hyperforin or both, although there may be some 24 known possible active constituents. Many herbalists believe that the active ingredient in a plant is the plant itself.
Herbalist and manufacturer
David Winston points out that whenever different compounds are chosen as "active ingredients" for different herbs, there's a chance that suppliers will get a substandard batch (low on the chemical markers) and mix it with a batch higher in the desired marker to compensate for the difference. This could result in a product that doesn't have the full spectrum of properties that would come from a properly selected and harvested herbal source.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Active Ingredient'.
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