Reasons for rejection of herbal raw material traded in Indian market and its possible solution

Abstract

This study was aimed to evaluate the major reasons behind the rejection of herbal raw material and to find out the possible solution to minimize these rejection. A total of 2637 samples of different herbal raw materials belonging to 134 species of medicinal plants having minimum of 3 samples for each material were collected and analyzed for different quality parameters of Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India (API). Out of the 2637 samples, 310 samples were rejected in different parameters of API. In 2018–19, 11.90% samples were rejected from the total of 706 samples studied. Likewise, a total of 983 and 948 samples were analyzed in 2019–20 and 2020–21 and the rejection was 12.41% and 10.97% respectively. Cumulatively, 11.76% sample were rejected. The main reason for this rejection was samples failed in macro and micro description contributing 57.74% rejection followed by foreign matter (10.65%), water soluble extractive and alcohol soluble extractive (8.39% each). Volume wise, nearly 58,447 MT was estimated to be wasted annually due to these rejections and nearly 14,910 MT was wastage during handling of the herbal raw material. Thus, a total of 73,357 MT of the raw material was left-over. This loss can be reduced by implementing the Good Agricultural Practices, Good Field Collection Practices, Post-harvest Management Practices, Recommended Packaging Practices issued by WHO and NMPB. Implementation of these guidelines along with strengthening of Self Help Groups, Farmers Producers Organization, infrastructure development at primary level and market linkages will reduce the rejection of these important resources.