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AAMPS – Organisational Structure

AAMPS – The Company

AAMPS – African Association for Medicinal Plants Standards is a non profit company registered in Mauritius dedicated to the development of quality control and quality assurance standards for African medicinal plants and herbal products.

AAMPS – The Board of Directors

AAMPS is run by a Board of Directors elected every two years by the Association Members. The Board of Directors consists of a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman and three other Directors, one of whom acts as Company Secretary.

There are, in addition, four Alternate Directors who act for and on behalf of the appointed Directors when these are not available.

AAMPS – The Scientific Advisory Committee

Apart from the Board of Directors AAMPS has a Scientific Advisory Committee consisting of eminent experts in the field of medicinal plants, phytomedicine and herbal products. The overall objective of the Scientific Advisory Committee is to act as the scientific counterpart to the commercial component.

The Scientific Advisory Committee advises the Board of Directors on the development and application of AAMPS standards and provides scientific and technical advice to AAMPS Members, Associates and Collaborators as and when required.

Members of the Scientific Advisory Committee are appointed by the AAMPS Board of Directors from time to time. The present Members of the Scientific Advisory Committee include:

Professor Dora Akunyili
National Agency for Food, Drug Administration & Control, Nigeria

Professor Edward Ayensu
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ghana

Professor Kobus Eloff (Chairman)
Phytomedicine Programme, University of Pretoria, Republic of South Africa

Professor Peter Houghton
Kings College London, United Kingdom

Professor Arnold Vlietinck
University of Antwerp, Belgium

The Board of Directors and the Scientific Advisory Committee are supported by an Executive Secretary, who is primarily responsible for membership, subscription and support services. All other AAMPS services are provided on a subcontracted basis.

The most important subcontracted services are:

AAMPS Publishing and Merchandising

The AAMPS "core" product is the set of herbal monographs prepared by the network of quality control specialists and made available in printed form, as CD ROMs and as downloads from the AAMPS website. In addition to these in-house products, the AAMPS network - in joint ventures with other organisations - will launch a series of other publications for specialists as well as the general public.

AAMPS Publishing will also produce some simple merchandising products, such as calendars, cards and diaries. A photo-library service specialising in African medicinal plants and herbal products is under consideration.

AAMPS Laboratory and Technical Services

Provide laboratory testing services for herbal medicines and plant-based natural products to the highest international standards. Using a network of AAMPS approved laboratories AAMPS aims to supply the only continent-wide services offering scientific analysis for a wide range of African plant-based herbal products. These include certification of identity, supply of voucher specimens and marker compounds for leading African herbals.

AAMPS endeavours to serve the industry’s testing requirements throughout Africa.

AAMPS Consultancy and Management Services

Provide a global team of the finest experts in the field of African medicinal plants, herbal medicines and related natural products. The AAMPS network of researchers, practitioners and technologists offers both macro- and micro-level solutions to problems relating to all aspects of the growing, processing and marketing of African medicinal plants and plant-based herbal products.

AAMPS Consultancy and Management Services provide support for projects like national quality standards development, laboratory staff training, on farm production and processing trials and the design and installation of herbal extraction equipment as well as running intensive training courses in herbal quality control and quality assurance.

AAMPS also offers specialist inspection and validation services for insurers, shippers and international certification agencies.