HERBAL MEDICINES AND RELATED PRODUCTS

These are herbal medicaments, homoeopathic and herbal remedies, supplements (food and dietary), tonics that are generally covered in the following chapters of the Code:

Chapter 21 - for food preparations like herbal teas or dietary supplements Chapter 22 - for drinks with added ingredients like vitamins, e.g., fortified tonic wines

Chapter 23 - for animal feed supplements

Chapter 29 - for vitamins and similar organic compounds that are separately defined

Chapter 30 - for herbal medicinal preparations for both humans and animals

Chapter 22 covers tonics and liquid food supplements that are meant for immediate consumption. These preparations contain added vitamins or iron compounds and are designed to maintain general health or well-being covered under the following Codes:

Heading 22.02 - non-alcoholic beverages Heading 22.05 - aromatised wines

Heading 22.06 - mixtures of fermented beverages with non-alcoholic beverages and other fermented beverages

Heading 22.08 - spirituous beverages; this includes products like tonic wine fortified with herbal extracts and/or vitamins, and liquid herbal remedies with a basis of distilled alcohol - these are included under this heading even if they’re meant to be taken in very small quantities

Chapter 29 - Provitamins and vitamins. These compounds can be dissolved in water or in some other solvent, but the solution must be used only because it’s required for safety reasons or for transport purposes. Stabilisers, such as anti-caking agents, can also be added, but only to preserve the compound or for transport purposes, but not like adding chromium picolinate, a dietary supplement in the form of tablets or capsules (covered in Heading 21.06).

Heading 29.36 specifically covers: provitamins, vitamins, derivatives used mainly as vitamins, mixtures of provitamins, vitamins and vitamin derivatives.Certain specified additives, such as antioxidants, are allowed provided that the amount added is just enough for the vitamins to be preserved or transported.

For classification purposes it’s very important that anything added to a compound doesn’t make the resulting product particularly suitable for a specific use rather than for general use.

Chapter 23 that covers animal feed supplements specifically excludes vitamins that just have permitted substances such as stabilisers added to them and which are meant for general rather than specific use (covered in Heading 29.36)