droga vegetal

English translation: herbal substance / herbal drug

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Portuguese term or phrase:	droga vegetal
English translation:	herbal substance / herbal drug
Entered by:	Muriel Vasconcellos

05:56 Aug 3, 2014

Portuguese to English translations [PRO]
Medical - Medical: Pharmaceuticals / special medicinal products

Portuguese term or phrase: droga vegetal

I'm translating legislation on the registration of special medicinal products in Brazil. I've found the term "vegetal drug" in English, but most of the sources seem to be translations from Portuguese, Spanish, and French. I have the feeling that the English should be 'herbal medicine', as that category doesn't appear elsewhere in the document. I'm reluctant to use 'drug' as the tendency now is to avoid it in public health texts and say 'medicine' or 'medicinal product'. I'm transcribing the definition of **droga vegetal** below, plus the definitions of the other medicinal categories in the same document so you can see what it's being compared against. Bottom line: Is it 'herbal medicine' or something else other than 'vegetal drug', preferably without using 'drug'?

**droga vegetal**: planta medicinal, ou suas partes, que contenham as substâncias, ou classes de
substàncias, tesponsáveis pela ação terapêutica, após processos de coleta, estabilização, quando
aplicável, e secagem, podendo estar na forma íntegra, rasurada, triturada ou pulverizada;

Here are the other definitions in the document. Note that I'm not asking for translations of the following terms; I'm pretty comfortable with the translations and I'm only showing them for context.

First, I'm calling this one 'medicinal plant':

**planta medicinal**: espécie vegetal, cultivada ou não, utilizada com propósitos terapêuticos;

This one, 'raw plant material':

**matéria-prima vegetal**: compreende a planta medicinal, a droga vegetal ou o derivado vegetal;

This one, 'plant derivative':

**derivado vegetal**: produto da extração da planta medicinal in natura ou da droga vegetal, podendo
ocorrer na forma de extrato, tintura, alcoolatura, óleo fixo e volátil, cera, exsudato e outros;

This one,'plant-based pharmaceutical':

fitofármaco: sustância purificada e isolada a partir de matéria-prima vegetal com estrutura química

Muriel Vasconcellos KudoZ activity Questions: 913 (none open) (163 closed without grading) Answers: 6309 United States
Local time: 08:46

herbal substance / herbal drug

Explanation:
Hmm. This is a tricky one.

In my humble opinion, when translating regulatory documents, it's important to be mindful of the internationally accepted/used terminology and stick to it when possible. Furthermore, the wording of Brazilian regulatory documents, at least in this field, is rarely ever original--it's usually based on existing sources, such as the U.S. CFR or European Union law. So, I did a little digging and here's what I've come up with.

- The definitions Muriel cites come from a series of ANVISA (National Health Surveillance Agency) resolutions, which date back at least to 2000 with this exact wording. I couldn't find earlier references to them.
- This particular definition of "droga vegetal" is pretty close to the WHO definition of "herb" that Muriel notes, but doesn't quite correspond to it. However, a quick SciELO search showed that many Brazilian journal articles that use the term "droga vegetal" clearly do use it to mean the herb itself, not to any preparation; one example: "a droga vegetal Matricaria recutita" meaning "the herb Matricaria recutita". This is in keeping with the WHO definition.
- Bearing all this in mind, the closest internationally accepted term I could find is "herbal substance". In a 2004 European Parliament Directive, a "herbal substance" is defined thus:

"All mainly whole, fragmented or cut plants, plant parts, algae, fungi, lichen in an unprocessed, usually dried, form, but sometimes fresh."

That's pretty darn close to the Brazilian definition used in the source text. The British Pharmacopoeia and Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration use a similar definition, and the European Pharmacopoeia uses "herbal drug" for the exact same definition.

If the source text uses "droga", I'd have no qualms about using "drug" in English, despite the tendency to avoid it in public health texts (this is, after all, legislation, and "droga" == "drug"), particularly as EU texts use "herbal drug". If you'd rather keep away from "drug" anyway, I'd go with "herbal substance": it fits the definition and sidesteps the drug vs. medicine issue neatly.

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Note added at 1 day7 hrs (2014-08-04 13:06:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

P.S. Apologies for the wall of text :)

P.P.S. I'd personally go with "crude" rather than "raw" for "matéria-prima vegetal".

Selected response from:

Filippe Vasconcellos de Freitas Guimarães
Brazil
Local time: 12:46

Grading comment

Thanks for all your research, Filippe!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +3

herbal remedy

Mike Scott

4 +1

herbal substance / herbal drug

Filippe Vasconcellos de Freitas Guimarães

Botanical Drugs (FDA), Herbal Medicinal Products (EU)

VERLOW WOGLO JR

phytoterapic medicament/drug

Mario Freitas

Summary of reference entries provided

herbal medicine, herbal remedy

Vitor Pinteus

Discussion entries: 7

Muriel Vasconcellos

United States

ASKER

Thanks, everyone!

05:17 Aug 8, 2014

After much review and consideration, I've decided to go with Filippe's answer because it best fits the definition in the text. Again, I appreciate everyone's contributions.

liz askew

United Kingdom

08:57 Aug 4, 2014

Hi,
I suppose I see "herbal" as a red herring here and fail to understand how it relates to "vegetal"...

liz askew

United Kingdom

08:31 Aug 4, 2014

see "phytomedicinals/medicines"
https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/v2-669.h...

Mike Scott

01:33 Aug 4, 2014

fitofármaco is a much more scientific medical description, and I would probably opt for phyto-pharmaceutical (with or without the hyphen)

Muriel Vasconcellos

United States

ASKER

Google definition of 'herb'

00:26 Aug 4, 2014

herb
(h)ərb/
noun
plural noun: herbs

1.
any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume.
"bundles of dried herbs"

Muriel Vasconcellos

United States

ASKER

WHO definition of 'herbal medicine'

00:22 Aug 4, 2014

This may help:

Herbal medicines:

Herbal medicines include herbs, herbal materials, herbal preparations and finished herbal products, that contain as active ingredients parts of plants, or other plant materials, or combinations.

**Herbs: crude plant material such as leaves, flowers, fruit, seed, stems, wood, bark, roots, rhizomes or other plant parts, which may be entire, fragmented or powdered.**
Herbal materials: in addition to herbs, fresh juices, gums, fixed oils, essential oils, resins and dry powders of herbs. In some countries, these materials may be processed by various local procedures, such as steaming, roasting, or stir-baking with honey, alcoholic beverages or other materials.
Herbal preparations: the basis for finished herbal products and may include comminuted or powdered herbal materials, or extracts, tinctures and fatty oils of herbal materials. They are produced by extraction, fractionation, purification, concentration, or other physical or biological processes. They also include preparations made by steeping or heating herbal materials in alcoholic beverages and/or honey, or in other materials.
Finished herbal products: herbal preparations made f

Muriel Vasconcellos

United States

ASKER

@Liz: Please look at definition for "fitofármaco"

00:17 Aug 4, 2014

Hi. I appreciate your research, but now my question is how you would distinguish your answer from the English translation for "fitofármaco" - they should be different because both the terms in Portuguese and the definitions are different. What do you suggest in light of the other term and its defintion?

Answers

4 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

herbal remedy

Explanation:
suggestion

Mike Scott
Local time: 03:46
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English

10 hrs confidence:

phytoterapic medicament/drug

Explanation:
Suggestion

Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 12:46
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

1 day 7 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

herbal substance / herbal drug

Filippe Vasconcellos de Freitas Guimarães
Brazil
Local time: 12:46
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English,

Portuguese
PRO pts in category: 76

Grading comment

Thanks for all your research, Filippe!

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks so much, Filippe! Verlow has now posted an interesting alternative that hadn't occurred to any of us. He has good references.

1 day 7 hrs confidence:

Botanical Drugs (FDA), Herbal Medicinal Products (EU)

Explanation:
Botanical drugs (FDA), USFDA Botanical Drug Products Guideline

Herbal Medicinal Products (EU)

These are the terms used by the FDA and EU Regulatory Agencies.

Definition:
A botanical drug is a plant-derived medicinal product that is intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in humans. Often based on a complex botanical compound, botanical drugs can offer a multiple agent solution, selectively and differentially affecting various target tissues. These characteristics position botanical drugs as safe and effective therapeutic solutions.

Pioneering the field, in 2006 the USFDA has published the Botanical Drug Products Guideline, which provides guidance for clearance of plant based medications. Under the botanical drug guideline, botanical drugs are cleared for specific indications just like a regular drug, thereby coded and accessible for medication reimbursement plans. In the European Union and other countries, plant-based medications are classified as Herbal Medicinal Products either under national country by country guidance or through the European Medicines Agency, the EMEA.

Reference: http://www.fda.gov/
Reference: http://se-curepharma.com/About.aspx?lang=2&id=7

VERLOW WOGLO JR
Brazil
Local time: 12:46
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thank you SO much Verlow! Your answer is very well documented!

Reference comments

1 hr peer agreement (net): +2

Reference: herbal medicine, herbal remedy

Reference information:
1. According to "TheFreeDictionary": "homeopathic terminology is medicine or remedy rather than drug."
Link: http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/drug

2. No. of occurrences in the Google search:
vegetal drug »» 23,900
vegetal medicine »» 1,470
vegetal remedy »» 149

vegetable drug »» 35,600
vegetable medicine »» 143,000
vegetable remedy »» 134,000

herbal drug »» 308,000
herbal medicine »» 3,050,000 (but also contains "herbal medicine" as "the science / treatment related to medicinal plants)
herbal remedy »» 524,000

plant drug »» 95,100
plant medicine »» 447,000
plant remedy »» 16,600

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Note added at 2 hrs (2014-08-03 08:01:44 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The term "vegetal drug" occurs mainly in academic and scientific studies, perhaps because the interveners in this context are more comfortable with the word "drug", for they associate automatically and unconsciously with the scientific sense only.

Vitor Pinteus
Portugal
Native speaker of:

Portuguese
PRO pts in category: 8

Note to reference poster

Asker: Thanks for the stats. As you can see, they are all over the map!

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