Preparation and processing of Medicinal Aromatic Plant.

 • Herbs: crude plant material such as leaves, flowers, fruit, seed, stems, wood, bark, roots, rhizomes or other plant parts, which may be entire, fragmented or powdered. 

• Herbal materials: in addition to herbs, fresh juices, gums, fixed and essential oils, and resins. In some countries, these materials may be processed by various local procedures, such as steaming, roasting, or stir-baking with honey, alcoholic beverages or other materials. 

• Active ingredients: active ingredients refer to the medicinal properties ofherbs. In herbal medicines where the active ingredients have been identified, the preparation of these medicines should be standardized to contain a defined amount of the active ingredients, if adequate analytical methods are available. In cases where it is not possible to identify the active ingredients, the whole herbal medicine may be considered as one active ingredient.

 • Herbal preparations: the basis for finished herbal products and may include: 

• powdered herbal materials – can be shade, oven, or freeze dried, depending on the required moisture content, and in small-scale production systems, packaged into plastic bags to keep fresh. Sun-drying should be avoided as the UV can destroy the medicinal properties. Sophisticated processing by pharmaceuticals can compress into pills or capsules to prolong shelf-life and facilitate dosing. These should then be stored in tamper proof containers; 

• suspensions – mixture of powder and water, with some form of preservative, requires no specialist equipment, and can be mixed directly before use; 

• creams and gels –blended or liquidised plant parts combine with aqueous cream or gel. This can then be packaged into plastic tubes or containers, facilitating application onto the skin, where medicinal properties are then easily absorbed; 

• teas – simple processing dries leaves ready for adding to boiling water. When loose tea is put into bags it ensures an even dosage, but the equipment required is specialised and expensive, so best left to products traded in large quantities; 

• tinctures, syrups and fatty oils – tinctures are alcohol based herbal extracts, and syrups are tinctures with a lower alcohol content. As with oil extraction, they are produced by extraction, fractionation, purification, cold processing, or other physical or biological processes, and preserved with alcohol. In the most simple of processed forms, they can include preparations made by steeping or heating herbal materials in alcoholic beverages and/or honey, or in other materials. They are stable and convenient to administer, and being liquid makes their dosage regulation simple. They are best packaged in brown tinted glass bottles to protect from the light, and preferably with dropper tops to help measure out small doses.

• Product labelling: both useful for branding the product and providing information about the product, its use, any warnings, expiry dates, and dosing. The branding and colouring on a label are important marketing tools. 

• Defining dosages: Most processing technologies produce products which are a concentrated form of the MAP, which can mean there is a risk of overdose. It is therefore important to calculate appropriate dosages of processed product relative to the unprocessed form. Basic dosage recommendations – amount to take and how often - vary with a number of variables: body weight, severity of condition, nature of herbs and rate of absorption. 

There may be circumstances where it is not advisable to take some MAPs, including pregnancy, if there is a known allergic response, or if already taking medication which may interact or interfere. It is thus of critical importance that MAPs be processed and administered by a knowledgeable and experienced practitioner.