A Natural Product can be classified into four categories:
- Traditional Medicine. Products used in traditional medicinal practices, where the medicine contains one or more natural plant, animal or mineral substances and their parts, in the form of non-extracts or raw extract substances, and homeopathic medicines. It does not include sterile preparations, vaccines, substances derived from human parts, or isolated and characterized chemicals.
- Herbal Medicine. Medicines containing substances or mixtures of substances produced by drying, crushing or refining, without being subjected to any other process, of a natural substance or substances of plant, animal or mineral origin and their parts.
- Finished Herbal Products. Finished Herbal Products consist of herbal preparations made from one or more herbs. If more than one ingredient is used, the term "Mixed Herbal Product" may be used. The Finished Herbal Product and Mixed Herbal Product may contain additional ingredients other than the active ingredient. However, the Finished Herbal Product or Mixed Herbal Product in which the chemically active ingredient has been identified and added, including synthetic compounds and elements isolated from herbal materials, cannot be considered as herbal.
- Homeopathic Medicine. All pharmaceutical dosage forms used in homeopathic therapeutic systems where diseases are treated with minimal dosage use because the ingredients used are capable of producing the same symptoms in a healthy person as the disease being treated.
To download the NPRA Guidelines for Natural Products, such as Guidelines for Product Registration, click here.
To learn more about NPRA's definition of Natural Products and other resources, such as directives, circulars, and application forms, click here.
