TITLE:
Quality Control of Medicinal Herbs—Has Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) Helped?
AUTHORS:
Ping-Chung Leung, King-Fai Cheng
KEYWORDS:
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), Medicinal Herbs, Quality Control
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.8 No.12,
December
27,
2021
ABSTRACT: Although GAP, as the overall regulatory practice of safe and high-quality medicinal plant production in China, has experienced negative results and is no longer recommended, it has been replaced by HACCP management system. HACCP system focuses on specific projects of quality and safety assurance, from agricultural production to complex plant requirements, and then to specific technical considerations. GAP plantation can never meet the huge actual demand, but HACCP system can still be carefully checked when it is applied to products collected from different regions to ensure quality and safety. At present, the discussions on establishing the information traceable system of Chinese medicine materials have started. The system relies on extensive literature retrieval, survey results and common quality problems of Chinese Medicinal materials. Collecting the latest information will provide a solid reference framework for the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) industry and the supervision of the central government.