Himalaya Drug Company, an Ayurvedic products manufacturer, will invest Rs 165 crore [Rs 1,650 million ($35 million)] in building a manufacturing plant in Bangalore that will confirm to the European and American drug agency standards.

The plant will produce Himalaya's entire range of products, with an emphasis on `Pure Herbs', a product line that takes popular Indian household remedies and bottles them in tablets to ensure the efficacy and assure the required therapeutic results.

Herbs like Indian gooseberry (amalaki), the richest source of Vitamin C and a well known anti-oxidant; bitter gourd known to aid in metabolism of carbohydrates; garlic (lasuna) which helps to control excess conversion of lipids and cholesterol have had their essences extracted into easy to pop capsules in the 'Pure Herbs' range.

Himalaya says it is banking on the growing fascination for Indian herbal remedies in the international markets to boost its sales.

To ensure that its products adhere to all the international standards, it has bought 200 acres off Bangalore to set up a spanking new factory.  The factory is expected to start production by the end of 2005.

"We will have the US FDA and European GMP certified plants. It will be a factory that will comply with the world standards when it comes to manufacturing drugs," says Ravi Prasad, CEO, Himalaya Drug Company.

In the United States, Himalaya sold products for less than $10 million last year. Yet it says there is an immense potential for growth -- at least 20 per cent per annum.

And driving that growth will be people of Indian origin who have grown up on many of the home remedies that Himalaya has now bottled.

For instance, a cold meant that a few leaves of tulasi (basil) had to be chewed and eaten twice a day; indigestion called for a dosage of karela (bitter gourd) juice and girls were often asked to eat Neem leaves to protect against skin disorders and purify the blood.

These now appear as tablets in a bottle labeled, Basil, Bitter Gourd and Neem respectively.

"Indians have been using these herbs for ages. But they were not available in easy standardised form. We also understood that plucking a few leaves of tulasi, for instance, is not going to give the right benefits. There is a difference in consuming the garden variety and standardised dosage," says Prasad.

In the late nineties, when Himalaya decided to reinvent itself after being known for years as a manufacturer of Liv.52, a hepato-protective drug, it decided to go for a product line that would appeal to a younger set of consumers.

Himalaya launched a range of skin and health care products, one of which was the `Pure Herbs' range.

An initial shortlist of the herbs was drawn up and over five years was spent in research on how best to capture the essence of each herb and standardised it across thousands of tablets.

Today, Himalaya grows 75 per cent of the raw material it needs. The rest it sources from thousands of villages throughout India who grow the required herbs exclusively for the company. All the herbs are grown organically, free of pesticides and farmers are educated on the correct soil mixture and profile that they need to maintain.

But more importantly, says the company, is the research it puts into ensuring that the herbs are crystallised such that there are no ill effects produced.

"Every herb has a number of alkaloids each which produce a particular effect to a certain extent. You have to ensure that you get the correct band of alkaloids to get the right effect, else it can do you more harm than good," says Prasad and gives the example of Rauwolfia Serpentina.

According to the company's legend, seventy years ago, on a visit to Burma, Himalaya's founder, M Manal, saw restless elephants being fed a root to pacify them. The plant from which it was taken is Rauwolfia.

Fascinated by its effect, he had it evaluated and created the world's first anti-hypertensive drug in 1934.

"Rauwolfia can bring down blood pressure and elevate mood. But in the wrong dosage it can produce depression. So, we do extensive research to get the dosage and the right efficacy from the herb. And then we standardise the herbs to ensure optimal therapeutic results without any side effects," says Prasad.

Himalaya has crystallised about 28 Indian herbs in the form of capsules.

"Just because it is Ayurveda doesn't mean that it has to be presented in a non-contemporary format," says Prasad who hopes that the easily available form of capsules will ensure that younger Indians too take to it.

The idea and the advertising has paid off, both in India and in the US, claims Prasad where many who know about the curative properties of these herbs walk into the stores to pick up a bottle.

"We find that people are taking the single herbs to supplement their diet and improve their lifestyle," says Prasad.

In India, Himalaya's products retail through its own stores, pharmacies and a number of malls.

Internationally, the company set up its first shop in 1997 in Georgetown, Caymen Islands.

Today its products are marketed in the US through more than 1,500 retail outlets, including the two key specialty natural products chains, Whole Foods and Wild Oats.

"Marketing initiatives are aimed at obtaining shelf space in an ultra competitive market by stressing the scientific content and the quality of Himalaya products and communicating the value of the product to the consumer with information material. This positioning is increasingly successful as our products stand out in gaining consumer confidence against lesser quality herbal products," says a marketing executive with the company.

Despite its pioneering efforts in standardising the herbs, Himalaya has chosen not to patent the `Pure Herbs' range for the fear of having to reveal its methodology.

"We don't want to reveal how the product is created. Just mixing a few herbs here and there does not make a good product. A good product is that which blends and processes those herbs together. And how that is done is what we don't want to reveal," says Prasad.

Last year, about 25 percent of the company's turnover comes from exports. This year, Prasad hopes to grow at nearly 20 percent a year in the international market.

"In general, herbal formulas derived from Ayurvedic medicine are still considered a niche market in the US, but a growing one," he says.