India needs to have access to safe herbal raw materials. For this the country needs to step up its cleaning, grading , drying and packaging at farm level and devise strategies to reduce the losses. This would be critical for the country if there is poor access to high quality herbal raw material, said Dr V Prakash, former director, CFTRI and director, research, innovation & development of JSS Mahavidyapeetha.  

If the country does not give top priority to these aspects of herbal raw material, it could be a loser in the years to come. It is not difficult to implement these aspects of sourcing herbs. There is need to put in place dedicated teams to assess the quality parameters while sustaining the demand of herbal medicine , said Dr Prakash at the recently concluded JSS University, Mysore and the Centre for Science and Technology Of the Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries on herbal drug discovery and applications.

Herbal drug researchers need to work towards differentiating genotype and phenotype of the herbal plants. This will give a boost to the safety chain of herbal procurement. It is vital for the herbal drug manufacturers across the small, medium and large industries to address the raw material, primary processes and distribution at the locations where extractions and excipients are taking place. Only strengthening of the marketing mechanisms would help address the multilayer problems that are encountered by the medicinal plant growers today, he said.

In the next few months, it would be technology, ethics and environment protection that would dominate the landscape of medicinal herbs and plants. “When India’s has a large treasure of herbs which are second to none globally, it is important that protocols are laid out for cultivation and collection. The country also needs to ensure increasing cultivation of herbs that suits its climatic conditions, he noted.

The losses and wastes during harvesting, transportation, grading, drying and bulk packing must be minimized. It is not just the quantity of herbs produced but its quality that needs to be given prime importance to avoid rejection of containers from India to the regulated regions of US and Europe, noted Dr Prakash.

These delicate raw materials needs to be handled carefully to ensure sustainable long term research with revision in policies. The country would need to now give priority on access to safe herbal raw materials to drive native drug research, said Dr. Prakash.