The Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions Office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) have intensified measures to guarantee the safety and efficiency of herbal products for public consumption.

The Authority has thus embarked on regional education, sensitization, and knowledge acquisition workshop for herbal medical practitioners in the three regions.

Akua Amponsaa Owusu, the Director in charge of the Authority for the three regions told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview on the sideline of a one-day training workshop for about 180 herbal medicine practitioners in the Bono Region.

The workshop, according to her was to give manufacturers requisite knowledge about the herbal medicine manufacturing industry to enhance the safety of their products.

This, she said would guard against the influx of unregistered, fake herbal medicine products into the market to maintain a high-quality standard of the nation’s herbal industry.

Madam Owusu stated the FDA’s periodic training to promote industry best practices would enhance the potency and efficacy of herbal medicine and proper treatment of ailments.

That, she added could even help to reduce the government’s expenditure on drug importation for the money saved to fund equally other important developmental projects.

Earlier in a presentation, Mr Richard Kyeremeh Yeboah, a Senior Regulatory Officer of the FDA emphasized the training would also help to authenticate the herbal products for their rightful medicinal uses.

Mr Yeboah further stressed the need for manufacturers to package their products in airtight containers to prevent product contamination of foreign materials such as dust.

The training was first held for herbalists in the Ahafo Region and participants were taken through topics that included standard operative procedures, rightful measurements with the right measuring devices, and naming of the products.

According to FDA, correct labelling information required indication of active ingredients, name of the manufacturer, disease condition, dosage, storage condition, precautions, location address, telephone, and batch numbers indicated in a required language like English and Twi.