The National Medical Plant Board (NMPB) has taken up a major initiative for development of a National Raw Drug Repository (NRDR) and Regional Raw Drug Repositories (RRDR) in respect of raw drugs being used in the ASU&H systems of medicine. The Board has made a draft guideline of NRDR and RRDR with an aim to establish standard protocols and keys for authentication of raw drug used in the herbal industry.
The key objectives of establishing these repositories are to act as accredited reference library for authentication of raw drugs; develop standard protocols and keys for authentication of raw drug used in the herbal industry and act as educational centre for creating general awareness about the raw drugs.
The activities in the repository will be focused on the collection compilation, cataloging and documentation (including digitization) of information on raw drugs that are used in the traditional systems of medicine (ASU&H) and preparation of comprehensive monographs thereof; Collection of plants and raw drug samples and preserving them with label for future reference and display in museum; Digital Data Base: Plants and their parts are identified, named interrelate, and in detailed studies of particular groups of plants how they differ from each other; Providing authenticated reference samples of raw drug to the users; Development of manuals with identification keys for identifications of raw drugs; and Testing of raw drugs for pesticide residue, aflatoxins, heavy metals, and microbial loads, etc.
The raw drug repositories would be developed in a phased manner and would be based on the principles of work specificity to avoid duplication, and strong networking. The NRDR would network with RRDR and would be primarily engaged in developing and maintaining the central data-base of raw drugs used in the country and in undertaking focused research on the raw drugs. The RRDRs would, on the other hand, play a stellar role in collection, documentation, and authentication of raw drugs collected largely from the respective agro-climatic region.
The RRDRs would share and deposit one sample of each species with NRDR, and would also provide necessary samples to NRDR for research purposes. The focus of these repositories would be on the traded raw drugs used in the ASU&H System of Medicine. The National and the Regional Raw Drug Repositories shall house 4 different sections dedicated to herbarium; raw drugs; original references or extracts and literature; and macroscopic, microscopic, chemical and DNA profile data base along with digital herbarium on each raw drug assigned to the repository.
In the first phase, the NRDR and the RRDRs shall collect authentic and market samples and develop a database of traded medicinal plants, as enlisted in the NMPB sponsored national studies on demand and supply of medicinal plants.
A network of one NRDR and upto 8 agro-climate region specific RRDRs shall be developed in the country. The RDRDs shall be digitally interlinked with other RDRDs and the NRDR. Proposed regions for setting up RRDRs are Himalayan Region (Uttarakhand, Himanchal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir); Western Region (Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujrat); Northern Region (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand); Central Region (Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh); Eastern Region (West Bengal, Orissa, Sikkim); North Eastern Region (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur); Southern Region (Karnataka, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana) and Southern and Island Region (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar).