| The first step towards a healthy life is to stay alert. But the desire of having a good health is accompanied with blind faith, which takes away our ability to question. In the name of natural treatment people are fed with toxic elements that are the main constituents of herbal medicines. There should be a check on the level of the elements used in the herbal medicines. |
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 Testing of all herbal medicines in India (ayurvedic, unani and siddha) for heavy metals like arsenic, lead and cadmium will soon be compulsory.
From January 1, every licensed manufacturer of herbal products in the country will have to display a heavy metals within permissible limits sign on their containers before exporting them.
A health ministry survey recently showed that one in every five herbal products contains potentially toxic levels of heavy metals. Recently, the Canadian government had also banned the sale of Indian ayurvedic medicines in the country because it contained high levels of metals like lead, mercury and arsenic.
The products that face the axe for being unsafe for consumption include Hamdards Safi, Daburs Shilajit, Himalaya Drugs Kerala Capsules and Zandu Pharmas Maha Sudarshan Churna Powder.
 The Canadian governments advisory followed a review of a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that found potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in 14 commercially available Indian ayurvedic medicinal products sold in Boston.
Shiv Rasant, joint secretary, Department of Unani, Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, told the Times of India, "Such incidents dent the image of the entire ayurvedic fraternity. We will not take any chances anymore. From now on, if any herbal product contains even one of the 18 potentially toxic elements as mentioned in schedule E of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of India, 1940, manufacturers will have to post a statutory warning asking consumers to buy them under medical supervision. All products will have to mention all the ingredients they contain as against the exact quantity. The license of the manufacturers will be cancelled if they dont follow this direction."
quantity. The licence of the manufacturers will becancelled if they dont follow this direction."
The permissible limits for arsenic, lead and cadmium will be as recommended by WHO on quality control methods for medicinal plants and materials.
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