The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) has set up a national facility for analysis of herbo-metallic products. The facility was formally inaugurated on Tuesday at its premises in Hyderabad.

Dr JS Yadav, director, IICT, said, the facility would help in building the competitiveness of the Indian alternative medicines in the international markets.

The characterisation of metals in herbal products will also be analysed through latest X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry. The facility will be made available to pharma and herbal industries in the country. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) have funded the herbo-metallic products facility.

It may be noted that the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has earlier approved several Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani (ASU) drug testing laboratories under rule -160 A to J of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rule 1945, following the Centre's decision to make testing for heavy metals mandatory for export purposes in respect of every batch of purely herbal ASU drugs by every licensee, with effect from January 1, 2006.

The Department of AYUSH has made heavy metal testing mandatory for exports of both internal and external herbal preparations.