GAAMA wants to standardise testing, certification of plant raw material

Asks Gujarat govt to draft set of guidelines for process, form body to issue certification of analysis

Gujarat based ayurvedic drug manufacturers have approached the state government to help them streamline the process of testing and certification of raw material namely plant parts that they use to make medicines as a step towards boosting quality assurance.

In order to ensure quality, the Gujarat Ayurvedic Aushadh Manufacturers Association (GAAMA) wants the state government to draft a set of guidelines for testing and subsequent certification of plant raw material with the help of appropriate agency. "We want a standard set of rules to be drafted and followed to check the percentage of active ingredients in the plant parts we use to make medicines. This would ensure quality and hence also raise the reputation of the industry," said a senior official of GAAMA.

He further added that there is a crunch of quality raw material in the country, mainly because of a lack of standardisation of testing the quality of ingredients. This gains significance in the context that around 50 per cent of the production from the state is exported to countries in the Gulf region, and other African nations.

Jaman Malviya, vice president of Gujarat Ayurved Aushadh Manufacturers Association (GAAMA) and also owner of Sunrise Remedies private ltd, a Gandhinagar-based manufacturer of ayurvedic drugs said that many companies do the testing in-house in the absence of a centralised institution for the same.

The industry feels that having a code of rules would raise the quality bar and, in turn, the reputation of the ayurvedic products manufactured in Gujarat. In this regard, GAAMA has suggested that the state government could forge a public-private partnership (PPP) institute that would be responsible for issuing certificate of analysis (CoA) of raw materials. "Obtaining a CoA should be made mandatory before supplying or even procuring any plant raw material," said the GAAMA official.

In the wake of supply crunch, ayurvedic manufacturers at present import part of their requirement from countries like Nepal and Afghanistan. However, there is no standard mechanism to test the efficacy of the ingredients thus procured, alleged the official.

There are around 681 registered ayurvedic manufacturers in the state, as against 2047 allopathic units, informed the Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA).

The ayurvedic industry has been growing steadily at 10-12 per cent annually and has now touched Rs 8,000 crore turnover combining both domestic and exports, Malviya claimed.