There's good news for diabetic patients looking for herbal remedies for both preventive and therapeutic purposes! Four prominent laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the Union Science and Technology Ministry have identified at least 500 herbs that have the efficacy to contain diabetes which is on the rise in the country.
The CSIR labs — National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), lucknow, Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology (IHBT), Palampur , Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), lucknow and Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), also at lucknow - have joined hands to prepare formulations from these herbs to tackle the 'silent killer disease'.
Sanjay Kumar, Director of IHBT, Palampur, pointed out that efforts are on to use medicinal properties of various herbs, the exact mixture based on knowledge passed down through the generations by traditional healers and ayurveda texts to treat various diseases.
Kumar said the herbal drugs will be scientifically validated before they are launched in market.
"The recent scientifically proven herbal drugs from the CSIR stable has been the first anti-diabetes herbal product 'BGR-34', a combination of natural plant extracts which is finding good response in treatment of Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus," added ex-senior scientist from NBRI, AKS Rawat.
In fact, the anti-diabetic drug which has been developed by the CSIR-NBRI and marketed by pharma firm AIMIl India has been adjudged as 20th best medicine out of 6,414 drugs of different brands by the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) recently. The BGR-34 is made from the extracts of four plants mentioned in Ayurveda after an extensive research by NBRI and CIMAP scientists to treat diabetes.
India ranks among the top 3 countries with a large diabetic population, according to a 2016 lancet study. The number of cases stands at 6.45 crore in India in 2014 and is already on rise at an alarming level due to various reasons including sedentary lifestyle.
"Similarly, there have been several groups of herbs such as ashwagandha, ginseng and rhodia which, if developed/integrated scientifically has the ability to regulate and manage various diseases. Health issues like asthma, allergy, gynecological ailments, arthritis and gastric problems too have found answers in ayurveda. The CSIR labs will work in tandem to develop the cost-effective ayurveda drugs in a mission mode," added Kumar.
The IHBT Director said that "rising drug resistance, partly caused by misuse of medicines, has rendered several antibiotics and other life-saving drugs ineffective. So there is has been greater need for traditional medicine."
Doctors too admit that alternative medicines in some cases often seems to do a better job of making patients well and at a much lower cost than mainstream care. India's herbal industry is worth about Rs 4,200 crore with a potential to reach Rs 7,000 crore by 2020 and export of ayurvedic drugs and allied herbal products is about Rs 440 crore, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).