Gamma irradiation as suitable preservation method on herbal medicine: A review

The trend of consuming herbal medicines has been increasing over the past three decades. No less than 80 of the world's population has used herbal medicines as a treatment. One of the problems in herbal medicine is the high level of microbial contamination caused by raw materials and production processes. Various attempts have been made to overcome these problems, one of them is the gamma irradiation method. Although irradiation has been widely used for food sterilization, the use of irradiation for sterilization on herbal medicines is still debated. It is because irradiation may affect the composition of active compounds of herbal medicines. This review aimed to discuss the applications of gamma irradiation for herbal medicines by emphasizing the chemical constituent stabilities of herbal medicines. © 2021 The Authors. Published by Rynnye Lyan Resources.