Assessment on halal status of genitourinary medication / Mohamad Basri Che Mohamad Sani

As muslims, the concern about halalness in every aspect of their lives is very important not just for food that they take but also the concern must include their medications. This study was performed to determine the permissible status of genitourinary medications. The assessment of the medications was performed on the active and also inactive ingredients. The active ingredients are the substances that were intended to treat the illness. Usually only one active ingredient in the products. The inactive ingredients are the substances added into active ingredient to improve the physical quality of the medications and usually there are more than five inactive ingredients in certain product. The active and inactive ingredients can be from animal, human and plant sources as well as synthetic based origin. The assessment of the medications are performed based on the information from the medication leaflets obtain from Hospital Sungai Buloh, MIMs and also from other references. The information from the medication leaflets are assessed by using standard reference which is Remington and also by using other website references. From the findings, there were 91 products were assessed, 28.6% products were permissible, 4.4% impermissible, 44% 'mushbooh' and 23.1% unknown. The impermissible status of genitourinary products mainly due to the active ingredient itself which is clearly stated from the medication leaflets that the active ingredients come from porcine or from human urine or blood. Mostly, the content of the inactive ingredients in the products that causes the medications are categorized as 'mushbooh'. Some of the products (23.1%) cannot be assessed because of not enough information provided and also because of the pharmaceutical manufacturers refuse to reveal the full information about their products. So, Ministry of Health cooperated with JAKIM as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers should play a vital role in order to provide more pharmaceutical products which contain permissible active and inactive ingredients.