The year 1994 has been a good year of progress and more informed use of alternative medicine. Several new products from plants have been put in the marketer for use by doctors- taxol for ovarian cancer, ginger for nausea after chemotherapy are two examples. The anti-malaria drug artemesenin from the Chinese plant quing hao tsu has reached India and is being tested in Assam and Orissa. It has been found effective without any side effects, and is available throughout the country. World over there is an increasing use of herbal medicines.
In China alone the sale of herbal products amounted to 1.7 billion dollars out of which medicines worth 400 million dollars was exported only to the United States. In the United States the sales of herbal medicines increased by about 15 per cent while the increase in the sales of pharmaceutical preparations is around 4 per cent. Pharmaceutical houses are now actively carrying out research on medicinal plants. Glaxo, SmithKline and Beecham, and Merck, are back in this field. New pharmaceutical houses have been set up to work mainly on plants.
The changes envisaged in the international proprietary rights after adopting the Dunkel proposals will make it inevitable for Indian pharmaceutical houses to support research in a truly big way. While it may not be possible for them to compete internationally in developing synthetic drugs it is possible, if they support research in the way needed, for them to discover medicines from the medicinal plants available and used in India. It would enable this country to benefit from the new patent rights situation which will come into force in a few years. Several interesting developments have taken place outside India. A Chair in Complementary Medicine has been set up in Europe.
More and more articles have been published in medical and anthropological journals suggesting that work is needed in the field of traditional medicines. It appears that the developed countries have realised the potential value of systems such as Ayurveda, Unani. Siddha, Homeopathy, the Chinese system of traditional medicine and Japanese Kampo medicines.
The Indian Council of Medical Research is going ahead with its disease oriented programme in clinical evaluation of ancient remedies. Already, it has been clearly demonstrated that a medicated thread coated with three plant substances is an alternative to surgery in case of anal fistula. Together with the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, it has been demonstrated that Picrorhazia kurroa is effective in hepatitis clinically.
A methodology still has to be set up to record and then investigate selectively, cures that have been reported all over the country with herbal medicines. An aggressive programme needs to be intiated to see that we preserve the bio-diversity. We also have to look into the legal position regarding use of traditional medicines by allopathic practitioners and the use of allopathic medicines by traditional practitioners. The first such case has already been taken to the consumer’s forum. It is a case of a homepath using allopathic medicines.
This issue needs careful thinking, especially since in many of our national programme, we are encouraging use of selected allopathic drugs by people who are not doctors. Is there a distinction between an Ayurvedic practitioner practicing allopathy, which is illegal, and using medicines developed for use in allopathy after learning about these drugs and vice versa. Wider implications of health care and the potential of alternative systems of medicine need to be discussed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment