Indian medicinal plant industry growth prospects is on an upward trend on account of the popularity of some of the plants. These plants with high medicinal values such as turmeric occupy top position in the global market. This together with regulations on natural products would give the much-needed fillip to the sector, according to Anurag Agarwal, managing director, Natural Remedies.
The current scene appears particularly interesting for botanicals of Indian origin. Awareness of health benefits offered by medicinal plants is significant too. “We see the next few years becoming interesting as formulators and consumers are looking for products with deeper science and support. Therefore it is a good phase of the industry to succeed,” Agarwal told Pharmabiz in an email.
One of the key trends seems to be moving towards natural. There is a visible perception that consumers are indicating reduced preference to chemicals even during preparation of natural products. Customers are now conscious of the inclusion of chemicals as excipients and adjuncts into the main herbal products by many companies and are therefore asking for all natural products, he said.
Another aspect for the growth is the regulations on natural products where the standards are being raised in terms of quality and GMP requirements both in the area of supplements and herbal medicines.
Yet another important trend is on intellectual property rights where patenting of natural products has been made difficult with the issue of new guidelines from patent offices. There is a raging global debate on differentiating discovery from invention in the natural space, he pointed out.
To succeed in any market, informed decision making through deeper and optimum analysis of any situation is an important factor that determines success. On a more specific perspective staying focused on developing and broadening the science behind the products is the key to guaranteed success in the market. Needless to say, what matters at the end is the value perceived by the customer on a product, said the Natural Remedies chief.
“At Natural Remedies we are working on a few new and interesting extracts in both the human and animal health segments with a primary objective of providing greater value proposition to our customers. We are now trying to take the science to the next level in the organization towards making the standardized extracts offered by us as best in class in the market,” he said.
The company’s efforts in this direction include developing a deeper understanding on active constituents responsible for the physiological effects and engineering the extracts to ensure that the active constituents are captured and standardized to offer greater health benefits and consistency to customers. “Some of the areas where we are going to focus will include joint health, digestive health, memory/cognition and stress,” said Agarwal.
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