The International Regulatory Cooperation network (IRCH), established under the aegis of World Health Organisation (WHO), has asked the Indian government to submit a comprehensive data of ayurveda, siddha, unani and homoeopathy (ASU&H) products exported from India to various destinations of the world.

The IRCH's directive to the Health Ministry comes in the wake of the world health watchdog's efforts to collect all available data regarding the herbal products exported for sharing the same between all the countries. After codifying the data collected from all exporting countries, the WHO will give the data to all the exporting countries to make them aware of the ingredients of each product exported.

This worldwide exercise is being conducted to get a first-hand knowledge of the herbal products being exported in the world. This will help the Indian herbal exporters, as under the new provision, the international regulatory agencies would be required to consult Indian government before taking any adverse action against the legitimate exports.

The Department of Ayush has asked the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) to collect and submit the data on the exported ASU & H products in the country by the first week April. The department of Ayush will send the data to the IRCH to be shared by all countries of IRCH.

The Pharmexcil has already started the process and has asked its members dealing in herbal exports to submit the details by the end of this month. They have been asked to furnish details like name of the company manufacturer, manufacturing license no. and date, name of the product, composition details, details of extract(s) used in the product like name of extract, solvent used and ratio of extract to RM, safety limits followed like heavy metals, pesticide residue, microbial contents, etc.

When contacted Pharmexcil executive director Dr PV Appaji said, "We have received a communication from Department of Ayush requesting Pharmexcil to collect and submit some data on the exported ASU & H products. Furnishing of such information to the IRCH of WHO would be of great use to Indian herbal exporters as the International Regulatory Agencies would be required to consult Indian government before taking any adverse action against our legitimate exports".