Marrubium vulgare is a plant with high bioactive potential. It contains marrubiin, a labdane diterpene that is characteristic for this genus, as well as a complex mixture of phenolic compounds. According to numerous studies, M. vulgare acts as a good antioxidant agent, and due to this, it could potentially be useful in treatments of cancer, diabetes mellitus, and liver diseases. In addition, its anti-inflammatory, wound-healing, antihypertensive, hypolipidemic, and sedative potential are discussed. Apart from that, its antimicrobial activity, especially against Gram+ bacteria, fungi, herpes simplex virus, and parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii, Trichomonas vaginalis, and Plasmodium berghei-berghei was recorded. Additionally, it could be used as a chicken lice repellent, herbicide, and natural insecticide against mosquito larvae and natural molluscicide. In veterinary medicine, M. vulgare can be used as an anthelmintic against the eggs and larvae of bovine strongyles parasites, and as an antibiotic against bovine mastitis caused by resistant bacterial strains. Due to the mentioned benefits, there is a tendency for the cultivation of M. vulgare in order to ensure high-quality raw material, but more firm scientific evidence and well-designed clinical trials are necessary for the well-established use of M. vulgare herb and its preparations.

Medicinal plants have an immense therapeutic potential that is not fully utilised. The poor results of clinical studies are often a consequence of bad biopharmaceutical characteristics (solubility and permeability) of herbal medicine. By developing new systems of administering medicine, it is possible to improve all three standards important for every medicine: efficiency, safety and quality. Data of consumption and characteristics of herbal medicine used in Serbia were taken from the official site of the Agency for Medicine and Remedies of Serbia. The absolute consumption of herbal medicine (given in euros) in 2016 in relation to 2006 has been increased by 1466.63%, while the relative consumption (in relation to absolute consumption of all medicine) has been increased by 811.11% in the same period. This substantial increase of the usage of herbal medicine was not followed by an increase in the presence of modern pharmaceutical dosage forms, since the observed period contained no registered herbal (or traditional) medicine formulated by the new medicine delivery system. Developing a new system for the delivery of herbal medicine, whose active ingredients has shown in vitro efficiency, could provide this efficiency when applied to humans. Registering these medications on the Serbian market would enable better quality use of such medicine in the healthcare system.