Overview
ISO/TR 23975:2025 - Traditional Chinese medicine - Priority list of single herbal medicines for developing standards is a Technical Report from ISO/TC 249 that provides a ranked reference of single herbal medicines to guide the development of international standards. The document defines the principles, evaluation methodology and data-processing methods used to prioritise herbs (e.g., international trade volume, pharmacopoeial occurrence, safety concerns, formula usage and CITES listing). The report also includes tables (top-trade herbs, pharmacopoeia occurrences, safety-related lists), a priority ranking (Clause 8) and a non-priority Annex A. English, French and Russian are the official ISO texts; a Chinese text is included for information by SAC.
Key technical topics and requirements
- Priority principles (Clause 5): Criteria that drive priority assignment, such as international trade volume, widespread pharmacopoeial inclusion, safety/adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports, frequency of use in formulas and endangered‑species status.
- Evaluation indexes (Clause 6): Detailed data sets and indicators used to score and rank single herbal medicines, including:
- International trade statistics (examples in the report include licorice, longan, jujube and other high‑volume herbs)
- Occurrence counts across national and regional pharmacopoeias
- Documented safety concerns and ADRs
- Use frequency in pharmacopoeial formulas and national formulations
- Existing international standards and CITES listings
- Data processing and ranking (Clause 7): Methods for assigning weight coefficients to indexes, defining rank ranges and performing statistical processing to derive a priority list.
- Deliverables: Ranked priority list (Clause 8) and extended list of lower-priority herbs (Annex A).
Practical applications - who uses this standard
- Standards bodies and ISO technical committees planning work programs for herbal‑medicine standards.
- National pharmacopoeia committees and regulators prioritising monograph development, quality control and safety monitoring.
- Herbal medicine manufacturers and suppliers focusing research & development, quality assurance and export compliance.
- Public‑health authorities and pharmacovigilance units assessing ADR risk and monitoring high‑priority herbs.
- Conservation and trade authorities using CITES‑related data to balance sustainable sourcing with standardisation needs.
- Researchers and universities using the methodology and datasets for policy, market and safety studies.
Related standards and references
- Links to major pharmacopoeias referenced in the report: Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, European Pharmacopoeia, Japanese Pharmacopoeia, Korean Pharmacopoeia, Thai Herbal Pharmacopoeia, Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards and United States Pharmacopoeia.
- Prepared under ISO/TC 249 (Traditional Chinese medicine); the report complements ongoing ISO work on single‑herb monographs and international herbal medicine standards.
Keywords: ISO/TR 23975:2025, Traditional Chinese medicine, priority list, single herbal medicines, herbal medicine standards, pharmacopoeia, international trade, pharmacovigilance, CITES.