Global Standard for Herbs&Spices

The World Health Organization (WHO) sets up a global standard for herbs&spices, in order to ensure safe consumption of herbal medicines. Furthermore, this standard provides a guideline for consistent and qualified manufacturing of herbal medicine.

Standard Requirements

1. General inspection on the identity of certain herbs&spices strains at both the macroscopic and microscopic levels.

2. Inspection for any foreign substances or materials that could be accidentally mixed with the products.

3. Inspection on major chemical elements or solutions used to extract the core ingredients of herbal medicine, i.e. alcohol / water extractive solution.

4. Inspection on moisture retained-evaporated ratio, or the drying loss, after the drying process. The evaporated moisture must not exceed the stated ratio.

5. Inspection on the ash content in order to identify and match it with the original herb. This process could also filter out such foreign substances as soil and pebbles.

6. Inspection for any insecticides, metalic chips, or chemical elements that may be mixed in with the product.

7. Inspection for contamination and other unclean substances.

Source: World Health Organization.