WHO Releases Medicinal Plant Safety, Harvesting Guidelines

WHO Releases Medicinal Plant Safety, Harvesting Guidelines

GENEVA--The World Health Organization (WHO) (www.who.int/en)released guidelines for the agricultural growth and collection practices formedicinal plants, hoping the new ground rules will ensure the quality and safetyof herbal medicines and ensure renewability of the plants.

Cultivating, collecting and classifying plants correctly are important forensuring the quality and safety of products, according to WHO, as severalinstances of adverse reactions to herbal medicines due to the substitution of anincorrect plant have been reported. For example, in 1997American consumerssuffered cardiac arrhythmias after using dietary supplements in which digitaliswas accidentally substituted for plaintain. And 14 people in Hong Kong werepoisoned by Podophyllum kexandrum when it was mistaken for the nontoxicGentiana and Clematis species.

Other issues addressed in the WHO Guidelines on Good Agricultural andCollection Practices (GACP) for Medicinal Plants focus on the environmentalimpact of cultivating and collecting medical plants. The growing herbal marketmay pose a threat to the plants biodiversity, as detrimental harvestingtechniques (such as cutting down whole Pygeum trees to get the bark, often usedin natural remedies for prostate disorders) and over-harvesting of raw materialsmay lead to the plants extinction and to the destruction of its naturalhabitat. Endangered medicinal plants include wild types of ginseng (Panaxginseng), wild American ginseng, goldenseal, echinacea, black cohosh, slipperyelm and kava, according to WHO.

The guidelines also outline the current state of affairs regardingpost-harvest operations, including national and regional laws on qualitystandards, patent status and benefits sharing.