Good Agricultural Practices: A Prequisite Approach for Enhancing the Quality of Indian Herbal Medicines

Preet Amol Singh and Ashish Baldi*

Received: June 13, 2018;   Published: June 20, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.05.001268

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Abstract

India is a land where huge population depends upon its ancient system of medicines involving herbs and spices for the treatment of ailments; it is a home for very old system of medicines which continue to be the mainstay of healthcare delivery to a vast segment of society even today. Growth of herbal based healthcare sector in India is putting high demand on both wild collected and cultivated medicinal plants. Unfortunately, because of the poor quality of some herbal medicines, there are number of reports of patients complaining negative consequences caused by the herbal medicines in India. The quality of the herbal medicine is somehow directly related to the quality of raw medicinal plant materials. Therefore, it is prerequisite to follow Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) for medicinal plants as it is the first step in quality assurance, on which safety and efficacy of herbal medicines directly depends. But despite of such WHO (GACP) guidelines, there is still lack of implementation and documentation of GAP of Indian medicinal plants. In this article, various factors concerning quality of the raw medicinal plant material and the role of GAP & GACP in achieving high quality herbal medicines will be covered.

Keywords: WHO; Good Agricultural Practices; Good Agricultural &Collection Practices; Medicinal Plants, Standardization

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