Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) and Sustainable Resource Utilization of Chinese Materia Medico

The Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) program, being established in China, is an optimal way for the sustainable utilization of the medicinal plant and animal resources. Most frequently used Chinese materia medica will be mainly produced from the GAP bases in the future. To assure the successful operation of GAP program, standard operating procedure (SOP) should be implemented for specific plants or animals. Both GAP and SOP include the requirements in many aspects from the ecological environment of cultivation place, germplasm and varieties, seedling and transplant, fertilization, irrigation, and field care, to harvest and process, package, transport and storage. As a complex system, GAP demands strong commitment from the pharmaceutical industry, local administrative involvement, long term R&D support, and years of time of development before a satisfactory result can be achieved.