Assessment on permissible status of anti-hypertensive medication / Nurwahidah Moh Wahi

Muslim consumers are very concern with anything that they take in their daily live including medication. In hospital setting especially Hospital Sungai Buloh anti­ hypertensive medication are among the most common to be used. But, the Halal status of each product used is unknown. Therefore, this study is important to assess the status of Permissible/Halal or' Shariah' comply of the anti-hypertensive medication in Sungai Buloh Hospital. The active ingredients, and inactive ingredients (excipients) of each products are evaluated. These ingredients may come from a variety of sources; animals, plants or synthetic origin. Assessment to the products are obtained based on product leaflets provided by pharmaceutical companies and used academic and other websites references. From this study, 147 products have been evaluated, of these 3.4% permissible, 79.6% doubtful and 17% are unknown. The most common compound that cause of doubtful in active and inactive ingredients are from animal or plant or synthetic. Some (17%) of the products cannot be assessed due to incomplete data from product leaflets especially for inactive ingredients. For the conclusion, all parties such as Ministry of Health, Pharmaceutical companies, health care professional and others should play their role to provide only permissible medicine for Muslim consumers to comply their religion.