The market Australia is one of the leading countries in the world with regard to practice and teaching of alternative and complementary medicine. The alternative and complementary medicine industry in Australia is growing rapidly and the current estimated market worth is over one billion dollars, with more than 20% of that market being herbal medicine…

The requirements of the licensing system in the United Kingdom are set out in Part II of the above act. Without the appropriate licence it is an offence to manufacture, sell, supply, export or import a medicine into UK, unless some exemption is provided in the act or regulations. However unprocessed plant material, without any…

The manufacture of these products is carried out by relatively few companies and, as distinct from the sale of an unprocessed herb, these preparations require a product licence for their manufacture and sale. This EC requirement was introduced in 1972 for new products and was subsequently extended to review all products irrespective of how long…

The market In Britain alone, an estimated 6,000–7,000 tonnes of herbs are extracted annually for use as ingredients of herbal remedies and for the health food market in 1983 it was estimated that the sale of herbal, homeopathic and other remedies amounted to £15M. The market for licensed herbal medicines in the UK was estimated…

Herbal product manufacturers having available the services of a Qualified Person, a resident of an EU member state, need to apply to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the grant of a traditional herbal registration for every product and each must comply with the official published standards. The application should include An…

The European market has harmonized regulations for the marketing of herbal medicinal products and issued the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD). It came into force on 30 October 2005 and requires traditional, over-the-counter herbal remedies to be made to assured standards of safety and quality and in conformity with regulations so that these are…

The market The herbal medicine tradition in some European countries remains strong, with quoted figures for herbalists being 16,000 for Germany and 4,000 for Denmark. In France as a result of legislation enacted in 1941, the marketing of herbal products passed very much under the control of pharmacists, 65% of total sales being through pharmacies.…

Regulatory mechanism for approval of plant drugs has not been in place in several countries until quite recently. In a WHO question-answer survey of 141 member states, it was found that while 92 countries (65%) have laws and regulations on herbal medicines 48 countries (34%) do not. Information provided by 77 of the member states…

A significant increase in the use of herbal medicines in the past decade has also seen a resurgence of interest in herbal medicines in developed countries due to a preference for products of natural origin. In addition, manufactured herbal medicines from their countries of origin often follow in the wake of migrants from countries where…

WHO has recognized the contribution and value of herbal medicines used by a large segment of the world’s population. Extensive usage of medicinal plants worldwide has raised concerns of safety, efficacy and quality control of herbal medicines and traditional procedure-based therapies. To enable legislation concerning procedures for registration of herbal medicines, governments need to draft…