MAKING RECIPES #8 Making herbal remedies for profit

Are they cosmetics, foods or medicines and what are the regulations?

This post is about issues in selling your herbal remedies to the public. If you want to develop a business with botanicals then you have to face up to facts that there are some regulations that apply, from good practices to legal requirements. There are quite a few rules which might affect you, depending somewhat on who is buying your products. If you are training as a professional herbal practitioner then you are likely to undergo specific sessions on ethics, insurance, patient care and so on which clarify the best practices. But, if you are a grower or a maker then things are less clear. There is quite a muddle about regulation of sales, especially when you realise that any herbal remedy can be classified in a number of ways. The preparation could be a cosmetic or body care item, or it could be considered a food such as a tea or supplement, or it could be a medicinal preparation of some sort.

This post is part of the MAKING RECIPES # series. All of my other posts are available free to all subscribers. The MAKING RECIPES # series for paid subscribers aims to give my inside story as a herbal practitioner based on growing, harvesting, making, preserving, selling healing remedies and body care products from the medicinal forest garden. As a paid subscriber you will also be supporting me in developing the Medicinal Forest Garden Trust to promote sustainable cultivation of trees and shrubs (which is much appreciated!). With a paid subscription, you can join the community chat talking about these posts.

Most herb growers that I have met have been focused on small-scale production in a temperate climate. The scale of production might vary from a few bottles to larger quantities. Sustainable foraging for personal use is not the issue here. But handmade production does not necessarily mean that there are no rules!