The WHO guidelines – a way to better quality of herbal products

The WHO is since many years issuing guidance documents on all aspects of the manufacturing and quality control as well as the therapeutic use of herbal products. One of the most influencial of these guidelines is on Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) for Medicinal Plants. This document is providing general technical guidance on obtaining medicinal plant materials of good quality for the sustainable production of herbal products classified as medicines. These guidelines are also related to WHO's work on the protection of medicinal plants, aiming promotion of sustainable use and cultivation of medicinal plants [1].

Accordingly, the main objectives of these guidelines are: to contribute to the quality assurance of medicinal plant materials used as the source for herbal medicines to improve the quality, safety and efficacy of finished herbal products; to guide the formulation of national and/or regional GACP guidelines and GACP monographs for medicinal plants and related standard operating procedures; and to encourage and support the sustainable cultivation and collection of medicinal plants of good quality in ways that respect and support the conservation of medicinal plants and the environment in general.

These guidelines concern the cultivation and collection of medicinal plants and include certain post-harvest operations. Good agricultural and collection practices for medicinal plants are the first step in quality assurance, on which the safety and efficacy of herbal medicinal products directly depend. These practices also play an important role in protection natural resources of medicinal plants for sustainable use.

Also the WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants, which were published in between 1999 and 2010, need to be mentioned in this context. The general limitation of all these documents is that they are not legally binding on a national level. This hampers the establishing of uniform standards for natural products globally.

WHO Guidelines on Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP) for Medicinal Plants (2003).