We turn to medicinal plants for something pure, natural, and trustworthy. But behind most herbal products today is a global industry that is complex, opaque, and often very far from these values.
To understand quality, we first need to look at this system and into what actually happens before these plants reach you.
Where medicinal plants or herbs on the market really come from?
Today, most medicinal plants are not grown locally.
The main producing countries are China and India. Then come Eastern Europe and parts of the Mediterranean, like Egypt and Morocco (Parvin et al., 2023). These regions supply a large part of the global herbal market.
But these plants do not go directly from these countries to your home. In Europe, one of the main import hubs is Germany (Mofokeng et al., 2022). Many companies across Europe rely on German suppliers for herbs.
A chain of a minimum of 6 different hands
Between the farmer who grows the plant and you, there is a long chain. A farmer harvests the plant. Then it is sold to a local trader. For exportation, herbs will then go to a exportation trader, then bought by an importer. Then resold again to companies. Then processed, packaged, and distributed to shops and then to you .
In total, a medicinal plant can pass through around a minimum of six different hands before reaching you (United Plant Savers, 2020). And every step adds time, storage, and distance.
A journey that takes months
Medicinal plants do not travel by plane. They travel in containers. The journey from Asia to Europe takes around six to nine months. During that time, the plants are stored in large quantities, often in conditions that are not always ideal for preserving their quality.
But the journey does not stop there. Once they arrive in Europe, they are stored again. Then sold. Then stored again. Then processed. Then stored again before being distributed.
When you buy herbs on the global market, they are not fresh. At best, they are around one year old. But most of the time, they are closer to two years old.
Why time matters for plants
Even when dried, a plant which is a biological material slowly degrades over time.
As months pass, the plant loses its aromatic compounds, its active compounds and its vitality. Its energetic can change too. This means that the plant you use today may be very different from the plant that was originally harvested and from the properties that are traditionally given to that plants.
Confusion, mixing, and fraud
With such a long chain, mistakes are inevitable. Plants can be misidentified. Mixed. Or replaced. Sometimes this is accidental. But sometimes it is done intentionally to reduce costs. For example, studies using DNA testing have shown that substitution exists on the market: a product labeled as oregano may contain other leaves, like olive (Black et al., 2016).
So what you think you are buying is not always what is inside the package.
The question of pesticides
There is also the issue of pesticides. Today, around 30% of pesticide use in Europe is linked to medicinal plant production.
Even when plants are cleaned before drying or processing, residues can remain.
But without knowing how these plants were grown, it is difficult to know what we are really consuming.
The hidden reality of wild harvesting
A last important point, is the origin of the plants themselves. Today, it is estimated that between 60 and 90% of medicinal plants are still harvested in the wild (United Plant Savers; 2020).
This means they are not cultivated. They are collected directly from natural ecosystems. This creates strong pressure on wild plant populations.
Some of the most well-known examples are Salvia apiana and Panax quinquefolius. These plants are now under serious pressure, and in some regions of United States, they are considered at risk of extinction (United Plant Savers; 2020).
In Europe, some well-known examples include Arnica montana, Gentiana lutea, Rhodiola rosea, and Inonotus obliquus. These plants are currently being reviewed in terms of conservation status (United Plant Savers; 2020)
Because many of these plants take a very long time to grow, in the case of roots can take around 7 to 10 years before they are ready to be harvested, if a farmer decides to cultivate them, it means investing land, time, and care for many years without any income from that plant. And when the harvest finally comes, the price would need to cover all those years of work. So instead, many of these plants are harvested in the wild, where they are freely available in the short term, but at a very high cost for ecosystems in the long term.
Conclusion
When you choose medicinal plants, you are not just choosing a product.
You are engaging with an entire system:
- where the plant was grown?
- under which conditions?
- how it was harvested?
- how it was preserved?
- how long it traveled?
- how many times it was stored?
- how many people handled it?
And all of this directly affects the quality of what you finally use.
So before even asking if a plant is “good quality,” we need to ask: Where does it come from?
Because the journey already tells a big part of the story.
Want to go deeper?
If you want to understand more about how the herbal industry works, and what is really happening behind the scenes, you can watch the presentation I gave at Biotopia, Uppala. In this talk, I go deeper into the global supply chain, the challenges around quality, and the future of medicinal plant cultivation.
And if you would like to explore further, I also shared the references used for this article below.
References
Black et al., 2016. A comprehensive strategy to detect the fraudulent adulteration of herbs: The oregano approach. Food Chemistry, 210, 551-557.
Mofokeng et al., 2022. Medicinal plant cultivation for sustainable use and commercialisation of high-value crops. S. Afr. j. sci.,118: 7-8, 1996-7489.
Parvin et al., 2023. Potential Role and International Trade of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the World, European Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences, 5: 5, 2684-1827
Annual Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation, 2020. https://unitedplantsavers.org/ups-journal-2020/
Recommended reads:
The Business of Botanicals by Ann Armbrech
Sustainable Herbs Initiative https://www.sustainableherbsinitiative.org/
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