"From 1st November 2005, Directive 2004/24/EC1 relating to traditional herbal medicinal products came into force in all Member States in the European Union allowing the establishment of a simplified procedure for the registration of traditional herbal medicinal products for human use.

In order to facilitate the use of the ASMF procedure in the area of herbal medicinal products, the Committee for Herbal Medicinal Products proposes an Annex on herbal substances/preparations (see Annex 1, table 3) to the Guideline on the Active Substance Master File procedure.

It should be noted that the principles which are outlined in this guideline in relation to traditional herbal medicinal products are equally applicable to other herbal medicinal products, both for Human and Veterinary use, which do not follow the simplified registration procedure. The new table (Annex 1, table 3) takes into account the particularities of herbal substances/preparations whilst also highlighting that this procedure is/can be applied to active substances/preparations of herbal origin, whether they be for human or veterinary use.

Since this revision introduces clarification rather than changing principles, the publication of a concept paper was not considered necessary.

The final Guideline has been adapted to the new template for Guidelines."