Big Data Application in Herbal Medicine: The Need for a Consolidated Database

Advances in technology have created and will continue to create changes in traditional and herbal medicine development and applications. Globally, and on a daily and annual basis, an increasing amount of data is generated from the traditional and orthodox health care systems. While the term ‘big data’ is loosely used, the phrase seems to have stuck with many but with the possibility of evolving in the near future. ‘Big data’ connotes huge and complicated data sets that usually lack structure, are multidimensional, and exhibit heterogeneity. With the promise of data-driven knowledge and intelligent decision-making, big data projects are ongoing and massively being explored for candidate therapeutics identification and development using cheminformatics and bioinformatics as well as other advanced data analytic approaches. However, the process of engaging stakeholders to benefit from the information provided by big data remain a major issue, knowing well that such data sets have the capacity to be utilized as backup for the support of medicines (herbal or otherwise) regulation. In the last decade, there has been an emergence of new data sets within the traditional medicine sector, with evolution of several institutional, national, and regional databases (DBs), providing new insights on phytochemicals, their efficacies, co-interactions, and mechanisms, and without much consolidation or unification. As such, repetitive data sets among databases have become the norm. This chapter presents how big data and big data analytics are being used and can be further explored in herbal medicine (HM) advancement, while advocating for consolidated HM databases. It also highlights the challenges that could be encountered in attempts to consolidate traditional medicines DBs, how they can be circumvented, and the many potential benefits of consolidated HM DBs. Likewise, other intertwined factors that are integral for advancing HM-based research, and drug discovery and development efforts for enhanced future health applications are discussed.