What is it about?
The Italian herbal products market is the most prosperous in Europe. The proof is represented by the use of these products in several marketing categories, ranging from medicine to nutrition and cosmetics. Market and legislation in Italy are at the same time cause and consequence of this peculiar situation. In fact, the legislation on botanical food supplements in Italy is very permissive and at the same time the market shows an overall satisfaction of users and strong feedback in terms of consumption, which brings a widening use of medicinal plants, formerly the prerogative of pharmaceuticals, to other fields such as nutrition. This review summarizes the market and normative panorama of herbal products in Italy, highlighting the blurred boundaries of health indications, marketing authorizations and quality controls between herbal medicines and non pharmaceutical products, such as food supplements, cosmetics and other herbal-based “parapharmaceuticals”.
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Why is it important?
This review is an important step in the understanding of the Italian normative on herbal products marketing. It critically analyse the different possible strategies for putting a herbal product on the market, focusing on marketing authorization, labeling and quality control needs in the different categories.
Perspectives
There is still a lot of work to be done in order to make the Italian normative on herbal products marketing less ambiguous. This analysis aim to point out the pros and cons of the current situation, in order to move towards a more scientific and rationale use of herbal products in the future
Mr Paolo Governa
Universita degli Studi di Siena
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Herbal Products in Italy: The Thin Line between Phytotherapy, Nutrition and Parapharmaceuticals; A Normative Overview of the Fastest Growing Market in Europe, Pharmaceuticals, October 2016, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/ph9040065.
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