The Hindu : Kerala News : Indigenous medicine makers told to maintain quality

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Indigenous medicine makers told to maintain quality

By T. Ramavarman

PEECHI (THRISSUR), JAN. 30. The Director of the National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, P. Pushpangadan, has said that ayurveda and other forms of indigenous medicines can win a place in the international market only if the medicines maintain good standard.

Dr. Pushpangadan who was here to attend the Kerala Science Congress told The Hindu that indigenous medicine manufacturers should demonstrate documented evidence for the safety of the medicines to become acceptable in the international market.

He said the main aspect of quality should be observed in the collection of herbs. There should be a standard production procedure of medicines and their contents should be clearly spelt out. In the past, one could rely on the traditional collectors and the wisdom that were handed over to the practitioners by their ancestors. But this would not be sufficient in the modern context, he said.

Use of chemicals

Referring to the reports that some of the Indian ayurvedic medicines were found to contain toxic chemicals when tested in the U.S., Dr. Pushpangadan said that there were some sections who would not want the Third World countries like India to come up in the traditional medicines sector. ``I had written to them to disclose at what levels were those toxic chemical found. If they are found in sub-atomic nano-levels, they may not be toxic. However, this can be proved only if we have adequate data,'' he said.

``But at the same time, we must also take those reports seriously to conduct an introspection to find out whether we are adhering to the standard manufacturing procedures. No doubt some toxic materials are used in ayurvedic and Sidha preparations. But in the past, we used to conduct proper detoxification. We should find out whether those medicines that were tested in the U.S. were prepared after proper detoxification.''

``Similarly, it is also important to find out whether the herbs used in those preparations were collected from a polluted area. Giving proper training to the collectors is vital to ensure quality of ayurvedic medicines. In this sense, I think the test results of the U.S. agency have come as a warning at the right time,'' Dr. Pushpangadan said. He said that China was able to wrest the lion's share of the world's indigenous medicine market through such rigorous quality control measures. Today, China accounts for nearly 48 billion dollar business in the indigenous medicine trade sector, whereas India has only a share of 600 million dollars. This is despite the fact that India has much superior bio-diversity and stronger systems of traditions medicines than China, he said.

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