Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)Their purpose is to make available up-to-the-minute information about all aspects of the medicines regulation process in the UK, together with news about initiatives in Europe and beyond. 

ESCOP was founded in June 1989 as an umbrella organisation representing national phytotherapy associations across Europe, especially in their discussions with European medicines regulators. Since 1996 it has been a company limited by guarantee in the United Kingdom.

World Health Organisation
To access for free all three volumes of the WHO monographs, click here.

The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA)
In January 1995, a new European system for the authorisation of medicinal products came into effect. The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) was established by the European Council and London was chosen as its seat. The new European registration system is an outstanding step towards the establishment of a unified market for medicinal products. It intends to promote the free circulation of pharmaceuticals within the EU while reinforcing the protection of public health. 

"The Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC) was established in September 2004, replacing the CPMP Working Party on Herbal Medicinal Products. The Committee was established in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 and Directive 2004/24/EC, which introduced a simplified registration procedure for traditional herbal medicinal products in EU Member States.

The HMPC's activities aim at assisting the harmonisation of procedures and provisions concerning herbal medicinal products laid down in EU Member States, and further integrating herbal medicinal products in the European regulatory framework.

As part of these objectives, the HMPC provides EU Member States and European institutions its scientific opinion on questions relating to herbal medicinal products. Other core tasks include the establishment of a draft 'Community list of herbal substances, preparations and combinations thereof for use in traditional herbal medicinal products', as well as the establishment of Community herbal monographs.

  TOPRA

  After opening the TOPRA page click on 'Consultants Directory' and then check the tick box for herbals to find a list of Regulatory Consultants with an interest / experience in herbals.

Veterinary Medicines Directorate (V.M.D.) 
The VMD aim is to protect public health, animal health, the environment and promote animal welfare by ensuring the safety, quality and efficacy of all aspects of veterinary medicines in the UK. In doing so they support Defra's objectives to promote a sustainable, competitive and safe food supply chain which meets consumers' requirements and to ensure high standards of animal health and welfare. They also support the aim of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to protect and improve the safety of food people eat.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

The Food and Drug Administration is a team of dedicated professionals working to protect, promote and enhance the health of the American people. FDA is responsible for ensuring that:

• Foods are safe, wholesome and sanitary; human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices are safe and effective; cosmetics are safe; and electronic products that emit radiation are safe.
• Regulated products are honestly, accurately and informatively represented.
• These products are in compliance with the law and FDA regulations; noncompliance is identified and corrected; and any unsafe or unlawful products are removed from the marketplace.

The object of Plant Medicine CIC is to "provide information, education, knowledge, research and innovation in the field of plant medicine for the benefit of the community."

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The mission of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is to enable better management of the earth's environment by increasing knowledge and understanding of the plant kingdom.

The Eden Project

The Eden Project was constructed in a 160-year-old exhausted china clay quarry at Bodelva, near St. Austell, in Cornwall.  Home to around 1 million plants of just under 4,000 taxa (species and cultivars). Most are not rare, except for the few that tell stories of the need for conservation, neither were they taken from the wild. Many were grown from seed in their nursery, others came from botanic gardens, research stations and supporters, mostly in Europe and the UK. 

New Vitality Tuition

Discovering Herbal Medicine Course

"This one-year, distance-learning course is a fascinating introduction to medicinal plants, their properties and uses. The pathological changes in the body associated with ill-health and their diagnosis are dealt with in some detail, as are the philosophy and principles of Herbal Medicine.

Although this is non-practitioner course, it is of a sufficiently high standard to have been accredited by the BHMA."

The Herb Society

The Herb Society is an internationally-renowned educational charity dedicated to encouraging the appreciation and use of herbs, bringing together those interested in herbs whether they are professionals or amateurs. The majority of members are in the UK but they have members worldwide including the USA, Thailand, South Africa and Europe.

Herbal Medicine - Professional Organisations

European Herbal and Traditional medicine Practitioners Association (EHTPA)

The EHTPA exists to foster unity within the herbal profession, to promote the availability of professional herbal treatment and to raise standards of training and practice within the profession. It campaigns for the legalisation of professional herbal practice throughout the EU as a speciality in its own right.

EHTPA, 25 Lincoln Close, Tewkesbury, Glos, GL20 5TY

Tel: +44 (0)1684 291605

The College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy 
The Registrar, Oak Glade, Hythe Close, POLEGATE, East Sussex, BN26 6LQ
Tel:  +44 (0)1323 484353

The National Institute of Medical Herbalists 
Elm House, 54 Mary Arches Street, 
EXETER, Devon, EX4 3BA
Tel: + 44 (0)1392 426 022

Useful Journals

British Medical Journal

The Lancet

Journal of Ethnopharmacology

Herbalgram - journal of the American Botanical Council

Phytomedicine

PubMed - a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 18 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.

Other links for
Herbal Medicine

Dr. James Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

The Alternative Medicine Homepage - good database links

American Botanical Council

attn. Mr. M. Blumenthal, P.O. Box 201660, Austin, Texas 78720, USA, Tel: +1 512 331 8868, Fax:+1 512 331 1924.

Herb Research Foundation

1007 Pearl Street, Suite 200, Boulder, Colorado, 80302, USA.

Tel: +1 303 449 2265.

The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia

National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
US National Institute of Health
Research-based information on treatments and conditions

www.phytotherapies.org - this site is a resource for herbal practitioners. It includes editorial content, articles and an extensive searchable and hyperlinked herbal database on current herbal therapeutics

A Modern Herbal by Mrs Grieves www.botanical.com/botanical/

Other links

The Cosmetic Toiletry & Perfumery Association ( CTPA) is an association of manufacturers of cosmetic, toiletry and perfumery products, and is the public voice of the industry in the UK. Representing cosmetic and personal care companies of all sizes involved in sourcing of ingredients, manufacturing, packaging, labelling and distribution, the CTPA provides members with comprehensive scientific and technical advice.