Persons who prefer to buy herbal medicines should ensure that they are doing so from licensed outlets, the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC) has said.
Speaking to the media during a routine enforcement exercise of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council aimed at ensuring that people who are selling herbal medicine without certification or license are identified, educated on the best practices, and in extreme cases, arrested, the Head of Public Affairs, Numo Blafo III, called on all to use the licensed outlets for their purchases.
“For the human risks and all that, if, for example, the people are providing healthcare, that is a different issue altogether, but these are people only selling products and the natural products is actually allowed to be sold. But then, that is the difference between the manufactured products and then the natural form.
“So, if it is manufactured, that is where we now look out for the expiry dates, FDA approvals and all that, but these natural products, there’s no way that you can look out for expiry dates. So, normally, we advise people in patronizing these people, ensure that you are dealing with someone who is licensed to actually do the business that he or she is claiming to be doing,” he explained.
Numo Blafo III also drew attention to the need for people selling manufactured herbal medicines to be certified by the FDA.
He added that it is only when it comes to natural sale of herbal medicines that the TMPC comes in.
“Most of the people that we’ve been to are people who are selling the products in their raw forms, and those are things that the FDA does not have control over; those are the issues. But then, when you’re not licensed or certified, then it is on the TMPC to ensure you get the license or certification, except those that you can see are packaged, with manufacturing and expiry dates, and FDA approvals,” he added.
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