Development of India's vast herbal resources and natural drugs is one area the government has not been looking at seriously for years now. The potential of such hundreds of rare herbs, seen only in some of the forest and tribal areas of the country, could turn into money spinning herbal products if exploited scientifically. But, most of these herbs are being procured, processed and sold by small ayurvedic firms without any scientific evaluation and hardly adding the right value. One can see thousands of ayurvedic products floating in the market manufactured by these obscure firms. These products are usually launched into the market without any mandatory safety and toxicology studies as there is no effective machinery to regulate their manufacturing practices and quality standards. The government is now trying hard to introduce GMP in ayurvedic sector but the move is already facing stiff opposition from them. However, there are a dozen or more large units like Dabur, Himalaya, Zandu, etc. which are manufacturing and marketing herbal products after proper scientific study. Overall, the growth of herbal industry in India continues to be extremely disorganized when compared to allopathic industry. One of the reasons for the unsatisfactory growth of Indian herbal industry is a general disregard to have a scientific approach amongst these units. This needs to change first.
Recent appointment of a high level committee, headed by a Planning Commission member, to recommend policy directives and regulatory changes in this sector is one serious move by the government to bring in a structured growth of this industry. The 20-member committee includes Director Generals of ICMR and CSIR, Director of NIPER, eminent natural product scientists and representatives from ayurvedic industry. One key area, the committee will be looking at will be how to streamline natural products research conducted by various government departments. Absence of coordination amongst herbal based R&D activities and consequent duplication of efforts often lead to wastage of government grants. Lack of knowledge of commercialization and patenting of new products amongst the government scientists is another issue to be addressed by the committee. The loss of Jeevani patent to TBGRI is a case in point. Unscientific ways of procuring raw materials for producing herbal drugs and food supplements and making non-validated therapeutic claims by these companies are other reasons working against the growth of this industry. Entry of a large number of multi level marketing companies into selling of various herbal products with false and misleading claims has further affected credibility of herbal industry in India. Currently, there is no law to check these marketing companies and they are flourishing at the cost of public ignorance. Constitution of a stringent regulatory machinery to regulate and monitor manufacturing and marketing of all herbal and ayurvedic products marketed in the country should be of top priority.