JEDDAH — The Shoura Council on Monday approved the draft law for herbs and their derivatives that are of medical value, according to Yahya Al-Samaan, assistant president of the council, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The move would pave the way for regulating the rules with regard to use of herbal medicine and prevent its misuse after the draft becomes a law when it will have an approval from the Council of Ministers. Mohsen Al-Hazmi, member of the council, presented the draft law at the session, chaired by Muhammad Al-Jafri, deputy president of the Council. Abdullah Al-Otaibi, deputy chairman of the Health Committee, read out the draft law, which was prepared after including viewpoints and opinions of the council members who took part in the deliberations on the draft earlier. Al-Hazmi said the law, which consists of 34 articles divided into nine chapters, aims at ensuring the safety of herbs as well as safety of their use and transactions. It also envisages facilitating marketing and trading of herbal cosmetics that have pharmaceutical and nutritional benefits. He said that the daft would address several negative phenomena related to production, import, storage, display, marketing and sale of herbs in perfume shops and other outlets. Al-Hazmi said the draft law was prepared after taking into consideration the large scale use of herbs and their derivatives in food or in treatment that may have positive or negative impact on human health.
