11.1 Medicinal plants/herbal drugs should be harvested when they are at the best possible quality for the proposed use.

11.2 Damaged plants or parts plants need to be excluded.

11.3 Medicinal plants/herbal drugs should be harvested under the best possible conditions avoiding wet soil, dew, rain or exceptionally high air humidity. If harvesting occurs in wet conditions possible adverse effects on the medicinal plant/herbal drug due to increased moisture levels should be counteracted.

11.4 Cutting devices or harvesters must be adjusted such that contamination from soil particles is reduced to a minimum.

11.5 The harvested medicinal plant/herbal drug should not come into direct contact with the soil. It must be promptly collected and transported in dry, clean conditions.

11.6 During harvesting, care should be taken to ensure that no toxic weeds mix with harvested medicinal plants/herbal drugs.

11.7 All containers used during harvesting must be clean and free of contamination from previous harvests. When containers are not in use, they must be kept in dry conditions free of pests and inaccessible to mice/rodents, livestock and domestic animals.

11.8 Mechanical damage and compacting of the harvested medicinal plant/herbal drug that would result in undesirable quality changes must be avoided. In this respect, attention must be paid to

- overfilling of the sacks,
- stacking up of sacks.

11.9 Freshly harvested medicinal plants/herbal drugs must be delivered as quickly as possible to the processing facility in order to prevent thermal degradation.

11.10 The harvested crop must be protected from pests, mice/rodents, livestock and domestic animals. Any pest control measures taken should be documented.