Raw material sourcing is planned and coordinated

Routine testing procedures are implemented for authenticity, adulteration and contamination, including tests for the following:

• Appearance, moisture, ash, acid-insoluble ash
• Pesticides testing utilising (GC-Ms, GC)
• Organochlorines
• Organic Phosporus
• Pyrethrins
• Heavy Metals and Harmful Ingredients Testing (ICP-MS, AAS)
• Heavy metals – lead chromium, copper, mercury
• Hazardous ingredients – Arsenic
• Tests conducted for heavy metals and pesticides/herbicides for each batch
• Active or significant ingredient testing e.g. testing for hyperforin content in Hypericum perforatum (St Johns Wort)

Best Practices

Quality

• Standardisation of seed selection (e.g. exact species, subspecies and variant), propagation, soil type, cultivation, harvest conditions, drying and processing
• Upstream activities so that in addition to quality control in processing there is also an agricultural/planting source framework to control the resources of high quality herbs.
• Determine quality of origin to establish quality assurance and stability
  Establish uniform standards for management of contaminants, adulterants, substitution

Transparency

• Development of quality and traceability systems.
• Sources of raw materials are named and guaranteed.

Traceability

• Origin of each batch is known and traceable
• Field visits to identify the genuine source of herbal raw material
• Product security, authentication, identification for individual products, individual product security.
• Barcode systems for each single herb.
• Every bag of raw material is tagged with standalone product bar code and quality information
• Transaction security, tracking, tracing, pedigree, chain of custody security.
• Tracing country of origin, manufacture date, quality inspection report.
• Chemical marker of single herb to protect chain of custody for extraction of herbs.