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LILIANA SCHIFTER ACEVES Y COLS. AN. R. ACAD. NAC. FARM.

las drogas de origen vegetal de la terapéutica oficial mexicana para
ser reemplazadas por los medicamentos sintéticos. No obstante, la
aparición de la Farmacopea Herbolaria de los Estados Unidos Me-
xicanos en el año 2000, marca un corte en esta tendencia, ya que
apuesta por el rescate de la fitoterapia en México y por una orien-
tación del texto semejante a la de sus homólogos estadounidense y
europeo en este rubro.

Palabras clave: Plantas medicinales; Fitoterapéutica; Estatutos
biofarmacéuticos.

ABSTRACT

The Mexican and United States of America pharmacopoeias
in the new millennium: similarities and differences

The XIXth century witnessed the appearance of the first
pharmacopoeias in the american continent; the United States
Pharmacopoeia (1820) and the Farmacopea Mexicana (1846). These
texts are the only ones that are reviewed and republished regularly
in this continent.

In this paper some of the circumstances surrounding their
publication are discussed and a comparison between their last
editions is laid out. Medicinal plants and the monographs dedicated
to them in both texts are carefully considered because it is here
that the mayor differences between these two codes arise. Their
similarities and differences are discussed as well as their perspectives
for the future.

The study of the different editions of the mexican pharmacopoeia
clearly show that after the publication of the 1930 text, a progressive
exclusion of medicinal plants and their drugs takes place. These
products were substituted in the official therapy by synthetic drugs.
This process continued during the whole century until the arrival
of the new millennium and a new edition of the text which included
a new volume called Farmacopea Herbolaria de los Estados Unidos
Mexicanos and implies a step in a different direction. This text
includes a number of monographs of medicinal plants and their

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