India Renews ‘One Herb, One Standard’ Initiative to Strengthen Quality of Traditional Medicines

India has renewed its inter-ministerial effort to establish harmonised scientific standards for medicinal plants used across traditional systems of medicine, with the Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H) and the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) extending their collaboration under the “One Herb, One Standard” initiative for another three years.

The Memorandum of Understanding was renewed on August 12, 2026, at Kartavya Bhavan in New Delhi. It was exchanged by Dr. Kousthubha Upadhyaya, Director In-charge of PCIM&H, and Dr. V. Kalaiselvan, Secretary-cum-Scientific Director of IPC, in the presence of Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ayush and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav, along with Ayush Secretary Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha.

The renewed partnership seeks to develop uniform, scientifically robust and reliable quality standards for medicinal plants used as single drugs across Ayurveda, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa, Unani and Homoeopathy. The initiative is intended to address a long-standing challenge in which the same botanical material may be described, tested or standardised differently across various medicinal systems.

Under the “One Herb, One Standard” approach, a medicinal plant commonly used by different systems will be governed by a harmonised quality framework. Such standardisation is expected to provide manufacturers, testing laboratories, regulators, researchers and exporters with greater clarity regarding botanical identity, purity, quality parameters and testing requirements.

Speaking at the event, Jadhav said that India’s traditional systems of medicine form an important part of the country’s knowledge heritage and medicinal plant resources. He emphasised that scientifically developed standards for medicines and their botanical ingredients are essential for improving the quality, purity, reliability and credibility of traditional medicinal products.

According to the Minister, harmonising standards for the same medicinal plant across different systems would reduce ambiguity among stakeholders and create a more coordinated regulatory and quality-assurance framework. The initiative is also expected to help streamline processes for manufacturers, exporters and testing institutions, thereby contributing to the government’s broader Ease of Doing Business objectives.

The standards and monographs developed under the renewed agreement will take into account both Indian requirements and relevant international quality benchmarks. Aligning domestic standards with globally recognised parameters is expected to enhance confidence in Indian medicinal plants and traditional medicine products, particularly in international pharmaceutical and herbal medicine markets.

The renewed MoU builds on the first phase of cooperation initiated in 2022, during which PCIM&H and IPC jointly developed 50 medicinal plant monographs. These monographs provide structured scientific specifications for identifying and evaluating medicinal plant materials and are intended to serve as common references across different systems of medicine.

The next phase will expand this harmonisation process and bring together the specialised expertise of PCIM&H, which develops pharmacopoeial standards for Indian systems of medicine and Homoeopathy, and IPC, which is responsible for pharmaceutical standards under the Indian Pharmacopoeia framework.

Beyond regulatory consistency, the government expects the initiative to strengthen the international acceptance of Indian traditional medicines by demonstrating greater scientific rigour in botanical identification, testing and quality assurance. Harmonised standards could also support Indian exporters by providing clearer and more internationally comparable specifications for medicinal plant-based products.

Jadhav said that continued cooperation between the Ministries of Ayush and Health and Family Welfare demonstrates how institutional coordination can strengthen India’s medicinal plant standardisation ecosystem. He added that improved standards would also contribute to safeguarding the country’s biodiversity and traditional medicinal heritage.

With the renewed three-year framework, the government aims to establish a stronger national system in which one medicinal plant is supported by one clear and scientifically validated quality standard, irrespective of the traditional medical system in which it is used. The initiative is expected to reinforce India’s ambition to emerge as a trusted global standard-setter for medicinal plants and traditional medicines while improving quality assurance across the domestic industry.

Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India; Ministry of Ayush; Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy; Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission. Published August 12, 2026.