Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Herbal Products in Italy: The Thin Line between Phytotherapy, Nutrition and Parapharmaceuticals; a Normative Overview of the Fastest Growing Market in Europe

Marco Biagi
* ORCID logo ,
Rita Pecorari
,
Giovanni Appendino
,
Elisabetta Miraldi
,
Anna Rosa Magnano
,
Paolo Governa
ORCID logo ,
Giulia Cettolin
,
Daniela Giachetti
Version 1 : Received: 27 October 2016 / Approved: 28 October 2016 / Online: 28 October 2016 (08:06:07 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Biagi, M.; Pecorari, R.; Appendino, G.; Miraldi, E.; Magnano, A.R.; Governa, P.; Cettolin, G.; Giachetti, D. Herbal Products in Italy: The Thin Line between Phytotherapy, Nutrition and Parapharmaceuticals; A Normative Overview of the Fastest Growing Market in Europe. Pharmaceuticals 2016, 9, 65. Biagi, M.; Pecorari, R.; Appendino, G.; Miraldi, E.; Magnano, A.R.; Governa, P.; Cettolin, G.; Giachetti, D. Herbal Products in Italy: The Thin Line between Phytotherapy, Nutrition and Parapharmaceuticals; A Normative Overview of the Fastest Growing Market in Europe. Pharmaceuticals 2016, 9, 65.

Abstract

The Italian herbal products market is the most prosperous in Europe. The proof is represented by the use of these products in several marketing categories, ranging from medicine to nutrition and cosmetics. Market and legislation in Italy are at the same time cause and consequence of this peculiar situation. In fact, the legislation on botanical food supplements in Italy is very permissive and at the same time the market shows an overall satisfaction of users and strong feedback in terms of consumption, which brings a widening use of medicinal plants, formerly the prerogative of pharmaceuticals, to other fields such as nutrition. This review summarizes the market and normative panorama of herbal products in Italy, highlighting the blurred boundaries of health indications, marketing authorizations and quality controls between herbal medicines and non pharmaceutical products, such as food supplements, cosmetics and other herbal-based “parapharmaceuticals”.

Keywords

herbal medicinal products; food supplements; botanicals; normative; phytotherapy; Italian pharmaceutical market; parapharmaceuticals

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Plant Sciences

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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