International trade in medicinal plants is expanding with increasing market for plant materials that are used in health and medical products. Most developing countries endowed with vast resources of medicinal and aromatic plants have immense opportunity for utilizing this growing market value of these resources. Countries such as China, India and Sri Lanka have officially recognized the use of traditional medicines in their health care delivery systems. There are however hurdles to be overcome to fully capitalize upon the current growth opportunity. According to Tuley De Silva, Chemical Industries Branch, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), they are as follows:

1. Lack of information on the social and economic benefits that could be derived from the industrial utilization of medicinal plants. Except for the use of these plants for local health needs, not much information has been available on their market potential and trading possibilities. As a result, the real potential of these plants has not been fully explored.
2. Pressure on the natural resource is increasing for plants which are in greater demand, with serious implications in terms of long-term sustainability.
3. Legislation to control harvesting and trade of medicinal plants is inadequate and ineffective in its present form.
4. The share received by local producers and gatherers for raw plants being usually low and cost of production in organized cultivation being higher it is difficult to persuade communities to undertake organized cultivation.
5. The market for herbal products is very diverse throughout the world, with each region or country having its own prerequisites for bringing those products on the market.
6. Herbal product classification varies in different parts of the world. While herbals are classified as medicine in one country, they are categorized as food in another. Quality control procedures and hence regulation for both being different, no universal quality control standards are applicable to herbals.
7. Markets for herbal medicines in developed countries are highly regulated and difficult to penetrate. Thus several traditional drugs of proven safety and efficacy are not marketable in the western world. Decisions concerning marketability are not driven solely by proof of safety and efficacy. To be marketable a drug candidate must affect only one point on a biochemical pathway. Products that affect multiple points of the same pathway are unlikely to be marketed because only ‘magic bullets’ are viable in today’s legal and economic environment.
8. Consistent and reliable volumes of unadulterated plant material of consistent quality are required for use in medicine and health care markets. Proper harvesting and post-harvesting treatment practices difficult to meet fully under wild harvesting conditions are constraints.
9. Several Least Developed Countries (LDC’s) lack knowledge of their supply capabilities and few have the resources and institutional capability to advise on policy or the regulatory mechanism to provide consistent high-quality products.
10. These countries have limited knowledge of the herbs’ medicinal properties beyond traditional knowledge and belief. This restricts their use and marketability even in local markets.
11. There is insufficient research on development of high-yielding varieties, quality control procedures are poor and R&D on product and process development is inadequate in these countries.
12. An issue of potentially major importance to all developing country exporters is intellectual property rights (IPR). Plants have been used in traditional medicines for centuries and hence cannot be protected by patents. They can be registered as individual or regional trade marks, with explicit rules of origin. Knowledge of IPR is limited in developing countries as is access to IPR systems. This issue is currently under discussion, debate and negotiation on a broader scale than for medicinal plants in the World Trade Organization (WTO).