Steps taken by the World Health Organization African Region Member States to standardise herbal medicines: a literature review

Abstract

Background Standardised herbal products present a solution to the high burden of diseases and inadequate access to drugs in Africa. This literature review explores the steps that the Member States of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa have taken to standardise herbal medicines. Methods We retrieved publications from Google and Google Scholar search engines and through published and non-published information physically available at the WHO AFRO. The search terms to identify the publications were ‘herbal medicine’ OR ‘traditional medicine’ AND ‘member state’ between 2013 and 2023, where ‘member state’ stood for the individual names of the World Health Organization African region member states. We extracted information on the regulation, established structures in the ministry of health, registration systems, and research and training facilities on herbal medicines from the retrieved publications. Results Member States have taken significant steps toward standardising herbal medicines through policymaking and research, such as clarifying the necessary regulatory framework; establishing a department, division, national office, or expert committee in their ministries of health; instituting a system for registering herbal medicines; and establishing research and training facilities for herbal medicine. However, only a few Member States have implemented all four aspects of herbal medicine standardisation and registration processes, with several of them lacking dedicated registration systems. Conclusions The WHO AFRO Member States are steadily establishing systems for the standardisation and registration of herbal medicines. Those that have made strides in specific aspects of standardisation and registration, as highlighted in the country-by-country analysis, should serve as benchmarks to others.