The interim report of the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) on herbal medicines will be presented to the Minister for Health and Children next month.
The findings of the report are likely to define the future direction of official policy on the use of herbal medicines, an increasingly popular alternative for people who are turning away from conventional treatments.
Dr Dairine Dempsey was appointed project manager on herbal medicines by the board on September 4th, and since then, following an advertising campaign, the IMB has received some 40 submissions from members of the public and health outlets which sell herbal medicines.
Lines of demarcation were drawn between the two sides last January when St John's Wort, widely regarded as useful in the treatment of depression, was banned from the shelves of health shops and made available from pharmacies on prescription only.
Consumers for Health Choice Ireland (CHC) has argued that the prescription requirement, consultation with doctors, could make the cost of traditional medicines prohibitive.
The IMB says it is charged with responsibility for public health safety and ensuring that false claims are not made for scientifically untested medicines. The popular description of St John's Wort as the herbal Prozac was an example of this, it says.
Ms Breda Dooley, national co-ordinator of the CHC, said an external forum, outside the remit of the IMB, was the best way for the herbal medicines industry and conventional medicine to explore their differences.
In the case of St John's Wort, she added, CHC preferred to describe the herb as a treatment for "lowness of mood". There was ample evidence, she went on, that since the herb became unavailable in health shops, its cost to the consumer had risen, in some cases appreciably.
The IMB has gone some way towards meeting the demands of the CHC by also establishing an expert committee on herbal medicines which will be chaired by Dr Des Corrigan, director of the School of Pharmacology at Trinity College Dublin and which will include experts from outside the State.
A spokesman for the IMB said the committee would comprise 10 experts from a variety of backgrounds and would hold its first meeting next month. The regulation of herbal medicines was also moving forward at European level, he added, and Irish law would have to reflect that.
"The reason for the submissions was that we wanted to open discussion and get as much feedback as possible. This is an effort by the competent authority to regularise the situation. I don't think anybody is suggesting all herbal medicines are going to be prescription only," he added.