Ministry of Ayush has taken a significant step to achieve “One Herb, One Standard”. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy (Ministry of Ayush) and Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) today in New Delhi for Inter-Ministerial cooperation for promotion and facilitation of “One Herb, One Standard”.

Prof (Vaidya) P. K. Prajapati, Director (In-Charge), PCIM&H and Shri Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, Secretary-cum-Scientific Director signed the MoU in the presence of Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush.

On this occasion, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, secretary, Ministry of Ayush said, “The primary objective of this MoU is the development of cooperative efforts between PCIM&H and IPC to promote public health by facilitating the development of harmonized Herbal drug standards. Since both PCIM&H and IPC are working with the common cause, it is logical and meaningful to harmonize the standards to achieve “One Herb – One Standard”.

This MoU will further facilitate collaboration for promoting exchange of information in the area of standardization of Traditional medicine by sharing of scientific information and drug raw materials/extracts, seminars, workshops, training and brainstorming programs. The sole authority of publication of monographs categorized under the “one herb one standard” will lie with PCIM&H only. The monograph(s), as per the MoU, developed by PCIM&H and IPC will be identified accordingly; IPC’s contribution in the respective monographs shall be recognized at appropriate place. The technical content of the monographs will be jointly developed by PCIM&H and IPC. Hence, these monographs will have same legal sanctity as published in ASU&H pharmacopoeia and IP.

Ministry of Ayush believes that this harmonization of standards will fulfill the objective of “One Herb, One Standard and One Nation” and improve ease of doing business in India and also improve overall trade of Indian botanicals. It will prove a significant step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat as promoted by Prime Minister of India.

On this occasion, Prof. (Vaidya) P. K. Prajapati, Director (In-Charge), PCIM&H said, “This MoU will enable publication of monographs, which will be beneficial to everyone. A joint committee will be constituted for the selection of medicinal plants and their constituent marker/s for carrying out other related technical work.”

Shri Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, Secretary-cum-Scientific Director, IPC said, “This MoU is going to provide an opportunity to all stakeholders like manufacturers, researchers and regulators in herbal medicine to get world class monographs to be used in their respective areas. It’s an opportunity for IPC to do deeper research in the area of herbal medicine especially in quality domain and contribute towards public health”

Presently there are different standards as well as different analytical methods published in ASU&H Pharmacopoeias when compared with Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP). Ministry of Ayush desires to remove this ambiguity by through “One Herb - One Standard” initiative. Through this MoU each monograph will have Indian Standards along with the international quality requirements, so that all Indian quality standards become contemporary with the global standards for the same botanicals.

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SK