Ayurveda ingredients face the dual challenge of poor visibility in supply chains and lack stability in pricing, according to Dr Amit Agarwal, director, R&D Natural Remedies.

These ingredients covering herbal powders and extracts are mainly a price driven business. There is very poor visibility too. The raw material in trade has lot of impurities and foreign matter. Packaging is generally very poor as jute gunny bags are re-used which are often damaged, he added.

In the allopathic industry, the ingredients strictly adhere to specified quality. For instance the API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) defined in terms of quality as IP, USP or BP grade. Though now many botanical powders and extracts are covered in all these international Pharmacopoeia, the practice of seeking compliance to them in terms of quality is yet to evolve, said Dr Agarwal.

The Drugs and Cosmetics Act mandates manufacturers of ASU medicine must ensure that the ingredients comply to their respective Pharmacopoeia. “Yet we see only a handful of quality botanical powders or extracts manufacturers in the country. Unlike allopathic system, for Ayush products, the law call for manufacturers to declare the ingredients to be API grade on the label,” he said.

On one hand pharmacopoeia standards are recognised to be synonymous with ‘high quality’. Surprisingly even in the international market we do not see suppliers of botanical ingredients claiming compliance to international pharmacopoeia like USP, EP or BP, pointed out Dr Agarwal.

Sensing an unmet need for quality botanical ingredients in the domestic market, Natural Remedies has planned to introduce API grade Ayush ingredients in the domestic market. These ingredients will match all the quality parameters specified in ‘The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, (Vol 1 to Vol 9)’ and will be in a ‘ready to formulate’ condition. Towards this endeavour, the company also was recently certified for Ayush standard mark certification.

“We have recently ventured into manufacture and supply of standardized botanical powders including some USP grade botanical powders. Many of our standardized botanical powders are 100% certified organic”, Dr Amit told Pharmabiz.

The Bengaluru based herbal extracts major has been catering to the international dietary supplement industry with its standardized herbal extracts so far.

“As of now, we are conducting new clinical studies on our existing brands namely Turmacin for joint health and Bacomind for enhancing cognition. There are several pre-clinical studies in progress with an aim to understand the complex mechanisms of action of our branded extracts. Some safety studies are also being conducted as per international regulatory requirements”, said Dr Agarwal.