Herbal Supplement Claims in the UAE: What the Rules Allow

Who regulates herbal supplement claims in the UAE

There is no single UAE rulebook for herbal supplement claims. Two published frameworks matter most for a herbal product sold as a supplement, and a brand should map both before it drafts a label.

• Dubai Municipality registers health supplements for the Dubai market through its Montaji system. Its Technical Guidelines for Health Supplements (Version 2.0, 4 May 2024) set the scope, label content, claim rules, prohibited ingredients and test limits, and no health supplement may be manufactured, imported, advertised, sold or distributed in Dubai unless it is registered in Montaji.^[1]
• The Emirates Drug Establishment (EDE) issues a federal marketing authorisation for healthcare products. Its service covers dietary supplements and herbal products that are not intended for diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of disease, and the certificate is valid for five years from committee approval.^[2]

EDE has taken over many services from the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP): 44 services were transferred in full and 13 in part, including renewal of registration for pharmaceutical products derived from natural sources (full) and health advertising licences (part).^[3] Older MOHAP guidance therefore still describes the product categories, but submissions now go through the EDE portal for the transferred services.

At GCC level, GSO 2571:2021 is the Gulf technical regulation for food supplements and GSO 2333:2022 sets requirements for health and nutrition claims on food products.^[5][6] Their full texts are sold through the GSO store and were not reviewed for this article, so check them against the product before artwork. Requirements in emirates other than Dubai were not reviewed; confirm the route with the relevant authority. This article is educational, not legal advice. Sources checked on 11 November 2026.

Is your herbal product a health supplement or a traditional medicine?

Classification comes before claims, and for herbal and Ayurvedic brands it is where most plans change. Dubai Municipality’s guideline includes botanicals and herbs among health supplement ingredients, in tablets, capsules, soft gels, gel caps, liquids and powders. The same guideline lists Ayurvedic products, Chinese medicine products and traditional medicine products as out of scope: they are not considered health supplements.^[1]

Several product positions are also out of scope, whatever the ingredients: products indicated for sleeping, sexual enhancement, vomiting or diarrhoea, hangover, throat lozenges intended to soothe or treat the throat, and supplements for people after bariatric surgery. Label illustrations that suggest symptom relief, such as points or dots on the body, are not accepted.^[1]

In practice, a herbal capsule positioned as a supplement with general-wellbeing or structure/function wording can follow the health supplement route. A product presented as an Ayurvedic medicine, or with a classical formulation name and therapeutic indications, needs a medicine route, which at federal level now sits with EDE. Confirm the classification with the authority before you fix the formula and the brand name. For how UAE authorities handle borderline products in another category, see our guide to cosmeceutical classification in the UAE.

Check every botanical against Annex 3

Annex 3 of the Dubai guideline, “Banned / Not Applicable Ingredients”, lists 81 entries and may be revised frequently.^[1] It includes many botanicals that are common in Ayurvedic and herbal formulas. Table 1 lists examples; check the current list for every ingredient.

Table 1. Examples of botanicals listed in Annex 3 (Banned / Not Applicable Ingredients) of Dubai Municipality’s health supplement guideline, Version 2.0.^[1] Turmeric (Curcuma longa) and black pepper (Piper nigrum) are not on the list.

What herbal supplement claims are allowed

The guideline defines a claim broadly: any representation that states, suggests or implies that a product has characteristics relating to its origin, nutritional or health properties, nature, production, processing, composition, indication or any other quality.^[1] Two kinds of health-related claim are allowed.

• Health claims describe a relationship between the product or an ingredient and health, for general health maintenance and wellbeing, nutritional supplementation, or vitamin and mineral supplementation (the last only above 30% of the RDA). The guideline’s examples include “Support good health and growth” and “Relieve general tiredness, weakness”. Each must be supported by sound and sufficient scientific evidence, with the function of each ingredient documented in standard reference texts.^[1]
• Structure/function claims describe the role of an ingredient in the normal structure or function of the body. Examples given are “Supports healthy function of the human body such as maintaining health joints, support natural physiological processes e.g., immune system, circulation” and “Assist in maintaining joint mobility”. They must be substantiated through ingredient-based evidence and, when necessary, product-based evidence.^[1]

For a herbal product, ingredient-based evidence means data on the same plant part, extract type and dose that the product delivers, not on the plant in general. Dubai Municipality may also ask for clinical studies to prove claims or statistics on the label.^[1] That is why the extract specification and the claim have to be written together; our guide to standardised herbal extract testing covers the marker assays that tie a claim to a defined extract.

Probiotic ingredients follow the same Dubai guideline but raise their own count and wording questions, covered in our article on probiotic and postbiotic claims in the UAE and GCC. For the full herbal development sequence, see the herbal product development process.

Prohibited claims: 20 disease groups and banned wording

Health supplements must not be labelled, advertised or promoted for any medicinal purpose, meaning treatment or prevention, implied or otherwise, of any disease or disorder, including its related condition. The rule covers labels, brochures, leaflets, advertisements and any other presentation.^[1]

Annex 4 gives examples in 20 disease groups, from cardiovascular disease (including “reduces cholesterol”) and diabetes to gastrointestinal conditions such as constipation and diarrhoea, musculoskeletal conditions (including “anti-inflammatory”), immunisation (“protects body against diseases”), metabolic disorders including obesity, and physiological claims such as “anti-aging” and hormone-related wording. A second list bans words and promises including “Miraculously”, “100% safe”, “Guaranteed”, “Efficacious/Effective”, “Anti-aging”, “Longevity”, “Memory enhancement” and “Anti-stress (unless qualified)”. The guideline says the lists are not exhaustive.^[1]

Table 2. Illustrative wording checked against the Dubai Municipality guideline (FRL reading, not an authority ruling).^[1] The science behind absorption claims for turmeric is covered in curcumin bioavailability: piperine, phytosome and other delivery formats.

Labelling, advertising and halal

Under the Dubai guideline, label content must be declared in clear English and/or Arabic. Required elements include brand and product name, manufacturer or UAE agent details, country of origin, active and inactive ingredients (with botanical names, and the scientific name of the plant recommended), pack size, production and expiry dates, storage conditions, daily dose and directions, intended use, a health warning, barcode and batch number. Products must not be presented as conventional food or as a meal replacement, and illustrations inconsistent with prevailing social customs and values are not allowed.^[1]

Claims follow the product into marketing. Any advertisement or promotional activity for a health supplement in Dubai needs pre-approval through Montaji, including brochures, campaigns, social media, TV and outdoor advertising; gifts, discount offers and free samples of registered products are exempt.^[1] At federal level, the issue and renewal of health advertising licences is among the services partly transferred from MOHAP to EDE.^[3]

On halal, EDE lists a halal certificate from a recognised authority among the documents for a healthcare-product marketing authorisation, together with a company statement that the product is free of pig derivatives and other listed substances.^[2] Dubai Municipality may request a halal certificate specifying the source of animal ingredients, sets “pork traces (gelatin)” as absent, and lists an alcohol specification of 0.03% (“as simple fermentation – not added”).^[1] Capsule shells, glycerin and ethanol used as an extraction solvent therefore need to be settled during formulation; our article on herbal extraction methods covers solvent choice and residues.

The dossier evidence behind a claim

A claim is only as strong as the file behind it. For Dubai registration, the dossier includes a free sale certificate, an ingredient report (for a botanical, the scientific name of the plant and the plant part used), an analysis report, GMP or equivalent manufacturing certificates, and a laboratory test report issued by a certified laboratory using accredited methods. Halal and organic certificates, clinical studies and safety assessments may be requested.^[1] EDE asks for a WHO-format certificate of pharmaceutical product or a free sale certificate certified by the UAE embassy, a detailed composition certificate, packaging and leaflet copies and a summary of product characteristics.^[2]

Annex 2 of the Dubai guideline sets test limits that apply to herbal products, including:

• E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella absent; coliforms at most 10 CFU/g.
• Yeast and mould at most 1,000 CFU/g and aerobic bacteria at most 100,000 CFU/g for herbal products.
• Heavy metals per day of intake for adults: arsenic 10 mcg, mercury 20 mcg, lead 20 mcg, cadmium 6 mcg.
• Sildenafil, sibutramine, phenolphthalein and anabolic hormones absent.

Registration is valid for five years, and later changes to registered particulars must be notified or approved.^[1] How heavy-metal results in ppm convert to these per-day limits is worked through in our UAE supplement label claim and overage guide, and why adulteration and contamination checks matter is shown in what herbal supplement recalls reveal about lead and undeclared drugs.

Common claim mistakes to avoid

• Copying overseas wording. A structure/function claim accepted elsewhere can fall into an Annex 4 disease group in Dubai, for example cholesterol, blood sugar or joint inflammation wording.^[1]
• Keeping an Ayurvedic or traditional-medicine presentation on a product filed as a health supplement.^[1]
• Not screening botanicals against Annex 3 before the formula is fixed.^[1]
• Letting marketing run ahead of the approved label, including social posts, influencer content and e-commerce listings, all of which need pre-approval in Dubai.^[1]
• Implying treatment through images, testimonials or before-and-after stories when the label text is neutral.
• Selling unregistered products online. In 2019 MOHAP warned the public about a red yeast rice supplement promoted in a social media video as unclogging arteries, confirming it was not licensed and its specifications were unknown.^[4]

A six-step claims checklist for a UAE launch

Table 3. FRL’s six-step claims checklist, based on the Dubai Municipality guideline and EDE requirements.^[1][2]

Formulator’s note: fix the claim list before the formula. Choosing the plant part, extract, dose and standardisation target after the claims are agreed keeps the label, the dossier and the test plan aligned; changing a claim late means reopening the evidence. A worked example of this sequence is in our curcumin supplement UAE registration case study.

Conclusion

Herbal supplement claims in the UAE turn on classification. In Dubai, botanical health supplements can carry general health and structure/function claims backed by ingredient evidence, but Ayurvedic and traditional-medicine products sit outside the health supplement scope, 81 ingredients are banned or not applicable, and 20 disease groups are off-limits. Screen the botanicals, draft claims against Annex 4, specify the extract to support them, and make the label, advertising and halal file match the registration.^[1][2]

For brands & formulators

Food Research Lab’s herbal formulation service develops herbal and botanical supplements with the UAE route built in from the first prototype: classification, Annex 3 screening, claim wording, extract specification and the dossier evidence each claim needs. Microbiology, heavy-metal and marker testing is run or arranged through accredited partner laboratories. We work from Chennai, India, for brands launching in the UAE and GCC.

Our regulatory and scientific research team reviews claims, labels and advertising copy against the Dubai Municipality guideline and EDE requirements, and our UAE market support page sets out how we work with brands in the region. You can also contact us with your formula, intended claims and target emirates.

In this series

• Ayurvedic and herbal supplements: demand in the UAE and GCC: who buys herbal supplements and why (start here).
• Curcumin bioavailability: piperine, phytosome and other delivery formats (the cluster guide).
• Herbal supplement claims in the UAE: classification, permitted and prohibited claims, labels and halal (you are here).
• Herbal extraction methods compared: maceration to supercritical CO₂, and what each means for the extract specification.
• Lead and undeclared drugs in herbal supplement recalls: what recalls reveal and how testing prevents them.
• Curcumin supplement prepared for UAE registration: a worked example from formula to dossier.
• Herbal formulations: develop your herbal product with FRL.

1. Dubai Municipality, Health & Safety Department. (2024, May 4). Technical guidelines for health supplements (DM-HSD-GU29-TGHS2, Version 2.0). https://dmpmedia.dm.gov.ae/uploads/2024/07/DM-HSD-GU29-TGHS2_Technical-Guidelines-for-Health-Supplements_V2.pdf (cited for scope and exclusions §5, label requirements §7.1, claim principles §7.2, Montaji registration and applicant criteria §8, dossier §9, advertising pre-approval §11.2, Annex 2 test limits, Annex 3 banned/not applicable ingredients and Annex 4 prohibited claims)
2. Emirates Drug Establishment. (n.d.). Issuance of marketing authorization for a healthcare product. https://www.ede.gov.ae/en/w/issuance-of-marketing-authorization-for-a-healthcare-product (cited for scope covering dietary supplements and herbal products, five-year validity, halal certificate, pig-derivative statement and dossier documents)
3. Emirates News Agency (WAM). (n.d.). Ministry of Health and Prevention transfer key services to Emirates Drug Establishment. https://www.wam.ae/en/article/bnhofv8-ministry-health-and-prevention-transfer-key (cited for 44 services transferred fully and 13 partly, including natural-source registration renewal and health advertising licences)
4. Ministry of Health and Prevention (UAE). (2019, April 10). Ministry of Health and Prevention confirms that the dietary supplement extracted from red rice yeast is not licensed by MOHAP. https://mohap.gov.ae/en/w/ministry-of-health-and-prevention-confirms-that-the-dietary-supplement-extracted-from-red-rice-yeast-is-not-licensed-by-mohap (cited for the public warning about an unlicensed supplement promoted on social media as unclogging arteries)
5. GCC Standardization Organization. (2021). Food supplement (GSO 2571:2021, Gulf Technical Regulation). Standards Store. https://www.gso.org.sa/store/standards/GSO:781286/GSO%202571:2021?lang=en (cited for the existence and scope of the Gulf food supplement regulation; full text not reviewed)
6. GCC Standardization Organization. (2022). Requirements for health and nutrition claims on food products (GSO 2333:2022, Gulf Technical Regulation). Standards Store. https://www.gso.org.sa/store/standards/GSO%3A810816/?lang=en (cited for the existence and scope of the Gulf claims regulation for foods; full text not reviewed)