The Hindu : National : Panel to study U.S. report on ayurvedic drugs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 18, 2004

National

National

Panel to study U.S. report on ayurvedic drugs

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 17. The Union Health Ministry would set up a high-level committee to look into reports that a study in the United States has found that many packaged ayurvedic products being sold there contained high levels of heavy metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic.

Speaking to The Hindu , Secretary of the Ministry's Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), Palat Mohandas, said that for ages, heavy metals were being used in the production of several ayurvedic preparations. Heavy metals were part of the therapy. But they were not used directly. They were processed in such a way that they were not toxic.

The Health Ministry has prepared detailed pharmacopoeia for all types of medical formulations including ayurvedic preparations and the standards were implemented strictly. As such, there was no possibility for any ayurvedic preparations to exhibit toxicity at the consumer end.

Yet to be on the safer side, a committee consisting of scientists would be set up to look into the findings of the study, which had been conducted by scientists of the Harvard Medical School. According to the reports, the scientists had analysed 70 ayurvedic products taken from shops in the Boston area and that 14 of them contained lead, mercury or arsenic.

Mira Shiva, Convener of the All-India Drug Action Network, an umbrella organisation of several health, consumer, legal aid and human rights groups, said that while the findings needed to be studied in depth before coming to any conclusion, the reports must also be seen in the context of efforts at the World Trade Organisation and other global levels to sideline inexpensive generic drugs and traditional medicines coming from India and other developing countries to favour costly patented drugs. "The timing of the report has raised questions. After all, the patent regime is due to undergo a change over from process to product patent by the end of the month."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National