Some products return to southwest Virginia in processed form and are sold in health food and drug stores throughout the area. Value addition at the collector's level is highly limited due to lack of available resources and lack of market knowledge.
Dealers usually require that collectors clean, dry, and sort medicinal and herbal products.
Some dealers dry and sort them into bigger bales and sacks for sale to other buyers. Usually, local processing of medicinal and herbal products will violate the Pure Food and Cosmetic Act which prohibits the sale of patent or proprietary medicine. Even at the dealer level, value addition is limited due to strict quality and safety standards of the Food and Drug Administration and industrial buyers. Often buyers will conduct chemical analysis on each bale of raw material and if the product fails to meet their standards or that of the Food and Drug Administration, the whole batch may be returned to the dealer. Natural Resource Natural medicinal and herbal products involves the use of leaves, stems, roots, bark, seeds, fruit, flowers and buds to make teas, tonics, powder, snuff, poultices, salves, tinctures, lotions, and smoke inhalers.