Construction status and development strategy of GAP bases for Chinese herbal medicine

Abstract

Good agricultural practices(GAP) for Chinese herbal medicine(CHM) is the source of quality control in the production of CHM. To ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of Chinese herbal and natural medicine, the international community has been exploring the implementation of GAP for CHM. The implementation of GAP for CHM has a far-reaching impact, and the scale planting of CHM has been expanding. However, the medicinal materials produced by the GAP bases for CHM still cannot fully meet the market demand, and the output and quality of CHM remain to be improved. This paper summarizes construction status of GAP bases for CHM.The 129 companies that passed the certification during the implementation of GAP for CHM included 196 GAP bases, forming the scale CHM production zone with Sichuan province, Yunnan province, Jilin province, Henan province, and Shandong province as the core.The total area of GAP bases for CHM in China is about 250 000-500 000 Mu(1 Mu≈667 m2), which is still less than 1% of the total production area of CHM. The international agricultural production quality management strategies are all market-oriented behaviors.Drawing on the international good agricultural and collection practice(GACP) and hazard analysis critical control point(HACCP) as well as the relevant policies of Chinese quality management of CHM, we put forward feasible suggestions for the further implementation of GAP for CHM:(1)The market rules and international experience should be followed and employed to promote GAP management of CHM and third-party implementation of GAP certification;(2)The sound development of GAP for CHM should be boosted with the HACCP management system and the revision of GAP for CHM;(3)The implementation of policies and standards should be stepped up to facilitate the building of a whole-course traceability system for the production of CHM with high quality and reasonable prices.