Singapore: The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has notified the draft rules on a new domain of medicines called phyto-pharmaceuticals, amending the country's Drug and Cosmetic act.

Phyto-pharmaceuticals, which are expected to hit the market soon, is a domain of medicines from the drug molecules extracted from plants. The new rules will form the basis for a regulatory system to evaluate and get approvals of plant based drugs.

The new draft rules are open for any kind of comment until December 7, 2013. Phyto-pharmaceutical drugs can be prescribed either by ayurvedic as well as modern medicine practitioners and will enter the market as functional food, dietary supplements, traditional medicines and as an approved drug.