Background: The global herbal medicine market has experienced substantial expansion over the past decade, driven by rising consumer demand for natural products, integration into health systems, and supportive industrial policies. Despite this growth, comparative economic evidence across major emerging producers remains fragmented. This scoping review synthesizes market structures, growth trajectories, and institutional drivers in leading herbal medicine economies to inform policy development in emerging contexts such as Iran.
Methods: Following the Arksey and O’Malley framework and PRISMA ScR guidelines, a scoping review was conducted across major databases and international reports. Studies published between 2000 and 2024 addressing market size, growth rate, regulatory structures, and economic performance of herbal medicine sectors were included. Data were charted and analyzed through comparative thematic synthesis.
Results: China and India demonstrate large-scale, state supported industrial ecosystems with strong export orientation and integration of traditional medicine into national health systems. Brazil shows moderate but expanding growth supported by biodiversity-based innovation policies. Iran exhibits growing domestic demand but faces structural challenges, including limited export capacity, regulatory fragmentation, and weak commercialization pathways. Market growth across countries is closely associated with regulatory coherence, research and development investment, value-chain integration, and international certification capacity.
Conclusion: Sustainable expansion of the herbal medicine economy depends on coordinated governance, innovation infrastructure, industrial upgrading, and health system integration. A multidimensional policy framework is proposed to strengthen Iran’s competitive position and facilitate evidence based development of the herbal pharmaceutical sector.