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

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. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 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.