COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

US company files patent for Indian medicinal plant

While the elitist health policy planners in India have turned a blind eye to the efficacious treatment of jaundice by phyllanthus amarus, a medicinal plant found in the country, a United States-based research company has filed a patent for it.

However, several non-governmental organisations from the country have challenged the patent claim of the American company, Fox Chase Research Centre, according to Shankar Darshan of the Bangalore-based Foundation for Revival of Local Health Traditions.

Shankar said that the medicinal plant found all over south India and several other parts in the country, was effective in treating Hepatitis-B. However, policy makers had failed to promote it though it was a safe herbal remedy.

He said a survey carried out by the centre showed that nearly 8,000 species of medicinal plants were used by the local health traditions in the country. A vast amount of medical knowledge existed among the local communities and it varied from one eco-system to other, he added.

Regretting that the health planners were not giving due recognition to local health traditions, he pointed out that 60 per cent of the broken bones were re-arranged by bone setters in the country. Similarly, snake bites were treated by the traditional healers.

Although various state governments have been requested to promote traditional health remedies, there was no coordination between the allopathy and traditional types of medicine, he said.

UNI

IICT ties up with American co to file for three US patents

NRDC to provide indigenous catheter with IPR protection

Business news