- Traditional Medicine > Traditional, Complementary and Herbal Medicine
- Quality and Safety: Medicines > Quality Assurance
(2003; 80 pages) [French] [Spanish]
Medicinal plants should be harvested during the optimal season or time period to ensure the production of medicinal plant materials and finished herbal products of the best possible quality. The time of harvest depends on the plant part to be used. Detailed information concerning the appropriate timing of harvest is often available in national pharmacopoeias, published standards, official monographs and major reference books. However, it is well known that the concentration of biologically active constituents varies with the stage of plant growth and development. This also applies to non-targeted toxic or poisonous indigenous plant ingredients. The best time for harvest (quality peak season/time of day) should be determined according to the quality and quantity of biologically active constituents rather than the total vegetative yield of the targeted medicinal plant parts. During harvest, care should be taken to ensure that no foreign matter, weeds or toxic plants are mixed with the harvested medicinal plant materials.
Medicinal plants should be harvested under the best possible conditions, avoiding dew, rain or exceptionally high humidity. If harvesting occurs in wet conditions, the harvested material should be transported immediately to an indoor drying facility to expedite drying so as to prevent any possible deleterious effects due to increased moisture levels, which promote microbial fermentation and mould.
Cutting devices, harvesters, and other machines should be kept clean and adjusted to reduce damage and contamination from soil and other materials. They should be stored in an uncontaminated, dry place or facility free from insects, rodents, birds and other pests, and inaccessible to livestock and domestic animals.
Contact with soil should be avoided to the extent possible so as to minimize the microbial load of harvested medicinal plant materials. Where necessary, large drop cloths, preferably made of clean muslin, may be used as an interface between the harvested plants and the soil. If the underground parts (such as the roots) are used, any adhering soil should be removed from the medicinal plant materials as soon as they are harvested. The harvested raw medicinal plant materials should be transported promptly in clean, dry conditions. They may be placed in clean baskets, dry sacks, trailers, hoppers or other well-aerated containers and carried to a central point for transport to the processing facility.
All containers used at harvest should be kept clean and free from contamination by previously harvested medicinal plants and other foreign matter. If plastic containers are used, particular attention should be paid to any possible retention of moisture that could lead to the growth of mould. When containers are not in use, they should be kept in dry conditions, in an area that is protected from insects, rodents, birds and other pests, and inaccessible to livestock and domestic animals.
Any mechanical damage or compacting of the raw medicinal plant materials, as a consequence, for example, of overfilling or stacking of sacks or bags, that may result in composting or otherwise diminish quality should be avoided. Decomposed medicinal plant materials should be identified and discarded during harvest, post-harvest inspections and processing, in order to avoid microbial contamination and loss of product quality.