The Current Situation of Japanese Medicinal Plants Industry and its Significance on the Pharmaceutical Industry 1-1 - 農業知識入口網

1. Current situation of crude drugs

1-1. Usage of crude drugs

Medicinal plants (crude drugs) have a wide array of applications in Japan including medicine, food, cosmetics, insect repellant, coloring, fragrance, bath products, etc. Since one drug may be used as medicine and/or food, statistical reports on the precise amount of medicinal plant utilization do not exist.

According to the domestic cultivation and importation data published in the “Annual Report of Pharmaceutical Production” 1) by the Japan Kampo Medicines Manufacturer Association (JKMA), 97% of the 150 most frequently used crude drugs for medicine and food in 2002 relied on importation (56,221t importation vs. 1,723t domestic cultivation). The employment of these 150 crude drugs parallels the production
rate of Kampo formulations, and since the sales of these formulations and health food are rapidly increasing in the recent years, demands for crude drugs are anticipated to proliferate also. Most commonly used drugs in descending order are Ginger (23,807t), Coix seed (7,021t), Capsicum (4,000t), Turmeric (3,727t), Glycyrrhiza (2,016t), Cinnamon bark (1,259t), Cassia seed (1,203t) and Safflower (1,055t). Glycyrrhiza is unsurpassed in its usage in medicinal products.

The 2006 statistical data2) from Japan Specialty Agriculture Products Association (JSAPA) of medicinal and non-medicinal crude drug importation reported that 58% were imported from China, 19% from Thailand, 13% from India, 2% from Sudan, and 1% from Taiwan. The actual proportion of importation from China is estimated to be higher if medicinal products are considered alone.