STAFF REPORT IBD: Pakistan and China have agreed to undertake experimental cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants in appropriate ecological zones to get qualitative and quantitative improvement. It will help improve the quality of herbs by genetic and plant breeding methods.
In this regard, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to help Medicinal Botanic Centre, PCSIR Peshawar, to acquire the status of a World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised Centre for Herbal Medicine.
The aims and objectives of centre are to carry out botanical and chemical survey of medicinal plants for various uses, studies on the isolation techniques to develop better methods of isolation and indigenous technology.
“Main aim of this centre is to set up quality control standards to standardise the indigenous herbal pharmaceutical industry, to develop new processes and products based on indigenous raw materials. Plan was to introduce new plants Stevia sp, to undertake any development and promotion on medicinal and aromatic plants,” an official said.