During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a wave of panic buying driven by belief in herbal immunity-boosting remedies sparked a sharp decline in the availability of key medicinal plants in Sri Lanka – a crisis that now threatens Ayurvedic drug production.
Supermarkets and smaller retailers saw empty shelves of herbs like ginger, turmeric, coriander seeds, and yellow vine. As demand surged, not only did local consumers snap up these items, but Ayurvedic manufacturers found themselves unable to procure sufficient raw materials for medicine production. Experts warn this artificial scarcity may spiral into overexploitation of wild plant populations.
Production Crisis at Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation
The shortage of medicinal plants is now directly affecting pharmaceutical output. The Sri Lanka Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation (SLADC) has reported critical gaps in raw materials, including aloe vera, kiratha, ranawara bark, fresh hathawariya yam, dried daththa yam, and raw welakola – essential ingredients in multiple traditional medicines.
According to The Morning newspaper, the SLADC has repeatedly urged the public to supply any medicinal plants they have, especially aloe, kiratha, and fresh welakola leaves. The Ada Derana newspaper reports that experts are deeply concerned about the supply chain disruption’s impact on production capacity.
Officials warn that if supplies do not recover soon, medicine shortages may intensify, affecting not just alternative medicine practitioners but communities that rely heavily on Ayurvedic remedies for primary care.
Unsustainable Harvesting During COVID Pandemic
Public behaviour during the pandemic appears to have triggered a ripple effect: widespread stocking up of herbs for home remedies put pressure on the wild and cultivated sources that feed the formal pharmaceutical supply chain.
Scientific studies support this worrying trend: according to a 2025 research article, many of the plants now in short supply – such as Coscinium fenestratum (yellow vine) and Tinospora cordifolia — were also in significantly higher consumption during COVID-19, but their overuse risks unsustainable harvesting.
Meanwhile, a 2020 analysis by Mongabay noted that over-harvesting driven by panic buying could lead to long-term ecological damage and threaten species that are endemic to Sri Lanka’s forests.
On the regulatory side, the SLADC’s capacity to scale up production is already stretched, partly due to limited cultivation of native herbs. Efforts to boost domestic cultivation – such as the national medicinal herb cultivation programme – are underway, but they may take time to offset current shortages.
Experts aver what began as a public health panic has evolved into a structural challenge for Sri Lanka’s traditional medicine sector. The surge in demand for herbs during COVID-19 has not only inflated prices but also depleted critical raw materials needed for Ayurvedic medicine production. Unless herb supply chains are reinforced – through sustainable cultivation, conservation, and better coordination between the public and the Ayurvedic industry – the shortage could continue to undermine local medicinal drug production.
