Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H), Ministry of Ayush in collaboration with WHO South East Asia Region (WHO-SEARO) has taken a major stride to upgrade laboratory capacity for quality control of Tradition/Herbal products in South East Asia region. A 3-days training program was inaugurated by Shri Pramod Kumar Pathak, Special Secretary, Ministry of Ayush in presence of Dr Kim Sungchol, Regional Advisor-Traditional Medicine, WHO South-East Asia regional office, Dr. Raman Mohan Singh, Director, PCIM&H and others dignitaries. Such an exercise is taking place for the first time in the country.
Total of 23 participants from 9 countries (Bhutan, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, Maldives, Timor Leste and Bangladesh) are participating in this training program. The objective of the training is to impart skills for laboratory based techniques and methods to maintain the quality of Traditional/herbal products.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Pramod Kumar Pathak, Special Secretary, Ministry of Ayush said, “As per the Research and Information System Centre for Developing Countries report, the industry is projected to reach US$ 23.3 billion in 2022. With increasing market, the quality issues of herbal material is also becoming increasingly worrying due to adulteration. The uniformity in Lab-based Quality Control will be able to evaluate quality of the herbals often altered by various physical, chemical, and geographical aspects.”
Dr. Kim Sungchol, Regional Advisor-Traditional Medicine, WHO South-East Asia regional office, said, “WHO-SEARO has successfully organized regional workshops and training for other countries. One of the key recommendations that were made by member countries during these regional workshops was to ensure regulatory capacity and that is why we are organizing this first training session in collaboration with PCIM&H, Ministry of Ayush.”
Quality control measures includes standards for raw herbal material, good practices (including agricultural, cultivation, collection, storage, manufacturing, laboratory, and clinical, etc.). Specified and uniform licensing schemes for manufacturing, import, export and marketing should be implemented that are pivotal to ensure safety and efficacy.
The growing market is giving the challenge to maintain the proper quality, efficacy and effectiveness of herbal drugs. This needs to be strengthened through network of laboratory capacity for Quality Control of Traditional/Herbal Products. This unique program will provide hands-on training on laboratory methods like Macroscopy, Microscopy in pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, Microbiology, other advanced instrument/technologies i.e. High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC), Gas Chromatography etc for quality control of traditional/herbal Products.