Thaw Zin¹*, Yap Sook Fan¹, Pramod D Shenoy², Choo Peak Yean³, Liew Siew Fun³ and Te Kian Keong⁴

¹Department of Pre-clinical Sciences, MK-Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Selangor, Malaysia
²Department of Physiotherapy, MK-Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Selangor, Malaysia
³Department of Nursing, MK-Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Selangor, Malaysia
⁴Department of Chinese Medicine, MK-Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Selangor, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author: Thaw Zin, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Pre-Clinical Sciences, MK-Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Selangor, Malaysia.

Received: November 20, 2025; Published: December 10, 2025

Abstract

Polypharmacy, or multiple drug usage, is common among growing elderly population worldwide as together with the increasing lifespan, usage of medicines to overcome the co-morbidities of old age becomes an inevitable necessity. This, however, exposes the elderly users to a greater risk of experiencing significant drug-related problems such as inappropriate prescribing, noncompliance with prescribed medication and adverse drug reactions/interactions leading to decrease in health-related quality of life. On a larger scale, drugs can also pose great challenges to our living environment as persistence of many pharmaceuticals and/or their transformation products, API contamination, can directly or indirectly affect the economic, environmental, and social dynamics, relating to ecosystems as well. To minimize the human and environmental impact of pharmaceuticals, the concept of Green Pharmacy, was introduced to create more sustainable practices by using plant-based herbal products that are less persistent in the environment and can degrade safely after use. In addition, herbal medicines with multiple active principles covering multiple potential targets and actions at the same time with a balanced, holistic and personalized manner seems desirable especially for the elderly experiencing Polypharmacy, when using Western Medicines. Herbal medicine use is a popular and common practice among elderly people in Malaysia, often for managing chronic diseases and for general health maintenance. Such usage is generally driven by factors like availability, cost, and a perception that traditional remedies have fewer side effects and are more natural, often taking a holistic, personalized approach to restore balance of the mind, body, and environment, which is sometimes perceived as a more natural philosophy than the targeted approach of conventional medicine. The current article is a review of series of research outputs initiated by the staff and students of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), with the aim to enhance the physical and mental wellbeing of elderly individuals, to enable them to be less dependent and more contributively to societal life, not just in living longer, but to live better (quality, productive life), and at the same time controlling irrational use of medicines and Polypharmacy. Further discussions and recommendations were made on how the Green Pharmacy principles can be integrated into the healthcare of the aging, neglected population can be done to produce an Age-friendly Sustainable Pharmaceutical Environment for the Elderly Malaysians.

 Keywords: Green Pharmacy; Age-friendly; Sustainable Pharmaceutical Environment; Eld

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Citation

Citation: Thaw Zin., et al. “Green Pharmacy: An Age-friendly Sustainable Pharmaceutical Environment for Elderly Malaysians”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 10.1 (2026): 19-34.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2026 Thaw Zin., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.