Traditional systems of medicine such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy, based on herbal medicines, have long been the cornerstones of healthcare in India, and now the world is awakening to the power of these systems. The world has now realised the potential of the systems for providing low-cost healthcare to society and their ability to provide treatment and cure for diseases considered to be incurable in the modern system of medicine.

The growing demand and global acceptance of these systems has dramatically changed the dynamics of this industry and the need for herbal testing. Medicines and formulations which were earlier made by physicians to treat patients within their villages or neighbourhood now have to travel through the length and breadth of the country and around the world. The manufacturing scale has also changed from a few hundred pills or couple of liter’s at a time to hundreds of thousands at a time. Medicines, which were earlier consumed within days or weeks of their manufacture are now shipped around the world, taking months to reach the patients and are now expected to have shelf life of up to five years.