(Food-Beverage-News.Com, December 21, 2016 ) Herbal medicines include herbal supplements, herbs, herbal preparations, and finished herbal products. Herbal supplement is one of the types of dietary supplements that is made from natural plants. It is also a popular traditional medical treatment. Herbal supplement is not considered as drugs and therefore not regulated as drug by any drug regulations such as Food and Drug Agency (FDA). Herbal supplements are available in capsules, powders and liquids. Consumers of North America spend over a billion dollars a year on herbal remedies. Blend of herbal and spices can make foods more appealing where Asian countries such as China and India have appreciated both the functions of herbs and spices for thousands of years. China is one of the largest suppliers of herbal supplements to North America and Western Europe market.
Herbal supplements are largely available in mass merchandiser followed by drug stores and super market. Women are the major consumers of herbal supplements.
On the basis of application herbal supplement market is segmented into western herbalism, homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicines and Ayurveda. Western herbalism holds highest market share in terms of both value and volume.
On the basis of types of supplements, herbal supplement market is segmented into Ginkgo biloba, Garlic, multi-herbs, st. Jhon’s wort, specialty herbs, and other herbal supplements. Multi-herbs shows highest growth rate among others in terms of value.
Geographically herbal supplement market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Western Europe and Eastern Europe together holds the highest market share in terms of revenue, however Asia Pacific market is growing at a highest rate among all other segments; China and India are two large contributor behind the growth rate of Asia Pacific.
To live healthy people are now have started taking herbal supplements, also awareness of side effects of allopathic drugs are driving the herbal supplement market. Multi-herbs on Chinese herbal therapy to witness strong demand also driving the herbal supplement market. Other many factors that are driving the market includes old age population and performance of herbal over many disease. However, there are some herbal pills those are better to be avoided such as Ephedra, Merida, Phentermine and others, which restrain the herbal market. Taking wrong pills might cause of high blood pressure and pulse rate and muscle damage. There is a high opportunity of herbal supplement since proper nutrition is lacking in daily food and also for special purpose for instance hair control, skin care, body care consumer prefers herbal supplements over others.
Some the key players operating in this value chain are Arizona Natural Products, Koninklijke DSM N.V., Arkopharma S.A, The Himalaya Drug Company, Nature's Way Products, Inc., Blackmores among others.
