POLICY BRIEF article
Front. Hum. Dyn.
Sec. Environment, Politics and Society
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fhumd.2025.1537802
This article is part of the Research TopicAsian Medical Industries: Beyond Tradition, Beyond Medicine, Beyond AsiaView all articles
Escaping the Rigidity Trap: The Functional Spectrum of Tibetan Formulas
Provisionally accepted
- Padma AG, Wetzikon, Switzerland
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Rigid pharmacopoeial regulations constrain traditional medicine, often excluding herbs due to strict compliance.• Climate change and rising global demand threaten natural resources, while slow regulatory adaptation further restricts herbal ingredients.• Narrow regulatory specificity and fragile resources create a rigidity trap, where regulations fail to accommodate the dynamic nature of traditional medicine.• Traditional medical systems, such as Tibetan medicine, exhibit flexibility and resilience by utilizing diverse plant species for similar therapeutic effects-the functional spectrum of a formula.• Rather than adhering to rigid pharmacopoeias, monographs should reflect the full functional spectrum of herbal materials historically and empirically used.• Expanding pharmacopoeial monographs to reflect functional diversity preserves traditional formulas, safeguards medical knowledge, and enhances adaptability to modern challenges.
Keywords: Sowa Rigpa, Tibetan herbal formulas, Materia Medica, Asian medicine, Pharmacopoeia, Substitution, Functional spectrum
Received: 01 Dec 2024; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Schwabl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Herbert Schwabl, Padma AG, Wetzikon, Switzerland
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