India’s herbal opportunity is about verifiable identity, measurable readiness and reliable outcomes — Shafiulla Hirehal, Managing Director, Greenspace Herbs

Greenspace Herbs, a Bengaluru-based company specialising in nextgeneration botanical ingredients, has recently launched Quantum Ayurveda, a revolutionary technology platform that applies quantum resonance principles to traditional herbal ingredients. interview with NUFFOODS Spectrum, Shafiulla Hirehal, Managing Director, Greenspace Herbs, discusses
the future of the herbal ingredients market, trends driving the growth, quality control and regulations in an interaction. Edited excerpts:

What is the future of the herbal ingredients market in India?
The next five to seven years look decisively expansionary. India’s nutraceuticals market is projected to track a double-digit CAGR and is expected to reach a range of $18–21 billion by the early 2030s, with Ayurveda-led botanicals serving as a core growth engine.

Policy tailwinds are strong: the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre in Jamnagar positions India as the nerve centre for evidence-based traditional medicine, while the export focus through AYUSHEXCIL and SHEFEXCIL is maturing the outbound opportunity. Exports of Ayush and herbal products grew to ~$651 million in FY 2023–24, and the ecosystem is getting more quality- and data-driven every year.

What are the trends driving the growth of this sector?
The health sector is currently surging forward thanks to five powerful trends. First and foremost, there’s a huge shift happening: people are taking charge of their health through prevention and self-care. This is fuelling massive demand for products that target common modern issues like gut balance, metabolism, stress, and sleep. Second, the market is becoming more professional because of clearer rules like the new Ayurveda Aahara Regulations, which give everyone transparent
definitions and compliance standards. This confidence is backed up by an industry-wide push for evidence and standardisation, where consumers are now demanding proof of a product’s strength (potency) and its journey (traceability). Finally, the growth is getting a dual boost: a strong export focus supported by groups like AYUSHEXCIL is taking Indian wellness global, while the efficiency of digital commerce and D2C brands is quickly delivering products straight from the farm to your door.

Which herbal ingredients are driving the largest market-share growth?
Right now, the natural health market is strongly led by adaptogens and anti-inflammatory actives, with several key ingredients showing incredibly healthy growth. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is a clear standout, consistently growing by about 9–12 per cent globally each year—a position that’s only getting stronger because of India’s significant supply advantage.
Similarly, Curcumin (from Turmeric) is posting a solid 10–12 per cent annual growth, driven by its popular antiinflammatory benefits, with India firmly remaining the powerhouse source.

Meanwhile, Berberine has seen a sharp surge since 2024, reporting high double-digit sales spikes in major channels due to intense interest in its metabolic health benefits. Beyond these frontrunners, we’re seeing renewed excitement for traditional
favourites like Boswellia, Bacopa, Amla, Shatavari, Tulsi, and Moringa, which are increasingly being combined into formulas aimed at specific areas such as women’s health, supporting brain function (cognition), and joint comfort.

Quality control and standardisation remain a challenge. How will you overcome this?
We see quality control (QC) as a full-circle promise, starting right where the ingredients are grown. We partner with farmers for contract growing under strict standards (GACP), providing training and using strict procedures to protect biodiversity and ensure the best harvest. To guarantee what’s in the bottle is actually what’s on the label, we use a battery of advanced tests—from high-tech chemical analysis (like HPTLC/ HPLC) to checking for pesticides and heavy metals, all the way to DNA barcoding to prove the exact species, which is crucial for complex herbal mixes. To stay ahead of anyone trying to cheat, we’re even piloting AI-guided fingerprinting for quick, reliable checks on expensive ingredients out in the field. Everything we sell strictly follows the government’s rules (FSSAI and Ayurveda Aahara frameworks), and we back up every claim with a clear Certificate of Analysis (CoA). For our special Quantum Ayurveda line, we take it one step further: we add an “energy spec”—a non-destructive, instrumentreadable signature—that helps us make sure every batch is identical, going beyond just the standard chemical composition.

What are the current regulatory challenges plaguing the sector?
There are three big problems that the nutraceutical industry in India has to deal with. First, changing rules makes it hard to run a business. For example, in 2022, the nutraceutical regulations kept changing, which meant that businesses had to update their labels and specifications often to stay in compliance. Second, companies must choose between two different routes
when registering certain classical formulations as Ayurveda Aahara (food) or AYUSH drugs. This makes it harder to make decisions about product development. Third, approvals and harmonisation are problems because foods that aren’t specified and new ingredients can take longer to get approved, and global standards are still being worked out. On the bright side, things are getting clearer, and India’s WHO-affiliated centre is still drawing attention to these regulatory changes.

What are the challenges to sourcing herbs in India?
Seasonality, climate variability, and wild-collection pressure can distort quality and availability. Certain species are threatened by overharvesting, and the risk of adulteration rises in fragmented chains. Our mitigation: expand cultivated acreage under GACP, invest in community collection with traceability, and enforce DNA metabolomic authentication at intake.

You have recently launched Quantum Ayurveda, a technology platform. How will this transform the ingredients market?
Quantum Ayurveda primes specific herbal actives using calibrated light and a magnetic field to prepare long-lived spin states—a metastable “ready mode” held within the same molecules (chemistry unchanged). We verify this state non-destructively via magnetophotoluminescence (magneto-PL) and EPR, and log it as an energy-state spec on the CoA. This added spec strengthens batch-to-batch reproducibility and creates a bridge from physics (spin-responsive signatures) to biology (cell assays in redox/mitochondrial function). For brands, it means more consistent performance of familiar botanicals at familiar doses.

What are your innovations in the herbalingredients space, and what’s in the pipeline?
Now: Two poly-blend clinical programmes—for nerve comfort and women’s health—and single-ingredient programmes on curcumin, berberine, and ashwagandha. Our mid-trial readouts indicate better bioavailability, higher biosensitivity, and significant localised ROS reductions, consistent with a prompt for cellular repair pathways.

Next: Extending spin-responsive design to synergistic
blends; TD-DFT-guided selection of actives; fieldswitchable formats and in-vivo validation. The platform’s magneto-PL/EPR readouts remain our backbone for QC and stability tracking. We supply nutraceutical and FMCG brands, contract manufacturers (CMOs/CDMOs), and functional food and beverage innovators. Internationally, demand is strongest from the US, EU, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Many relationships are under NDA, but common threads are clean label, clinical alignment, and traceable, specification-rich botanicals.

Your plans for the Indian market five years down the line.
Our strategy is laser-focused on five priorities. We are scaling traceable cultivation under GACP to support livelihoods and biodiversity, reducing risky wild collection. We are establishing QC leadership by making routine DNA/metabolomic identity checks and full contaminant controls, and—for our Quantum Ayurveda line—a unique “energy specs” standard for all COAs. We ensure regulatory excellence with 100 per cent conformance to FSSAI frameworks and proactive label governance. This work allows us to expand our portfolio depth with India’s first launches in key areas like metabolic health, women’s health, and
gut-brain formulations. Finally, we are committed to export acceleration, partnering with organisations like AYUSHEXCIL to secure global market access and align with WHO-centred evidence initiatives.

India’s herbal opportunity is no longer just about availability and cost; it’s about verifiable identity, measurable readiness, and reliable outcomes. By combining good agriculture, modern analytics, and— where appropriate—spin-verified Quantum Ayurveda, we aim to make Indian botanicals the gold standard for the world.