The minister of state (IC) for Ayush Shripad Yesso Naik inaugurated the Regional Raw Drug Repository (RRDR) on 22 October 2020 at All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi, through a virtual function. This RRDR is the second in the series of repositories proposed by the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), Ministry of Ayush, and dedicated to the Trans-Ganga Plain Region.
There is an increased demand for natural healing and herbal products across the globe. Covid has further pushed the demand, and many of the key herbs like Asvagandha, Giloi, Tulsi, Kalmegh, Mulethi are in high demand. With the increasing demand for herbal medicines, the NMPB, which is already engaged in developing a mechanism to ensure supply of quality raw material to the Ayush industry and consumers, expediting the process of establishing the Raw Drug Repositories.
NMPB is already involved in developing policies in this direction and attaining speedy development in the areas of making sustainable availability of authentic raw material of medicinal plants for the Ayush industries. To document the diversity in the genetics and chemistry of medicinal plants, eight RRDR and one NRDR have been proposed by ), ministry of Ayush. Out of them, three Regional Raw Drug Repositories are ready.
According to the press statement, RRDR for Trans- Ganga Plain Region covers four states -Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Punjab. This region has a huge potential for medicinal raw materials. Therefore, this RRDR would play a stellar role in collecting, documentation, and authenticating raw drugs collected largely from the respective agro-climatic region.
NMPB also released a protocol titled “Standard protocol for Quality assessment of Raw Medicinal Plants Material” based on Rasa in collaboration with All India Institute of Ayurveda, New Delhi, and National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur.
