Department of Ayush Proves its Genuineness

April 10, 2007

(Ayushveda.com) - Shortly, the Indian Department of Ayush will be submitting an exhaustive list of all the herbal medicines it exports everywhere in the world. This list will be submitted to various scrutinizing international bodies all across the globe. This move is being taken by the Department of Ayush to prove as a permanent remedy for the recurrent bans on herbal medicines that are imposed by international bodies time and again.

The Department of Ayush regulates the five main Indian therapeutic systems of medicine which have been often branded as alternative medicine. These five therapies are Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. In fact, the name Ayush itself is an acronym of these five words. Among the various responsibilities of the Department of Ayush, an important one is to regulate the worldwide sales of all Ayurvedic medicines.

The World Health Organization issues directives from time to time which make some of the herbal remedies come under the line of fire in different parts of the world. These directives are issued through the International Regulatory Cooperation of Herbal Medicines (IRCH), which is a body under the WHO. The Department of Ayush will be submitting its inventories and other records to the IRCH. The IRCH will go through the kinds of components used in the exported herbal medicines, and will also carry out the relevant tests as it is wont to do. Then, the IRCH will send the reports to all WHO member nations. In this manner, the countries will be satisfied of the genuineness of the herbal medicines and will not take moves to ban them.

The Department of Ayush itself will collect data from each individual manufacturer of herbal medicines within India . These manufacturers will have to submit a total list of their raw materials, extracts, solvents, ratios of extracts to the raw materials and contents of heavy metals, pesticides and microbes if any present in the herbal medicine. Mr. Ranjit Puranik, the general secretary of the Ayurveda Drug Manufacturers Association (ADMA) is seeing to it that the report reaches the Department of Ayush in time for submission to the IRCH.

Among several things, this move will generate the faith of people in the western countries about the veracity of these herbal preparations. Talks are in place for putting some stamps of authenticity on the checked products. If that happens, then the buyers from all across the globe will gain more confidence in Ayurvedic medicine, and the market which is already increasing, will continue to increase at a rapid rate.

In fact, this move is a response to the difficulties Ayurvedic medicine exporters have had to face in Australia and Singapore . A leading supervising department of herbal medicines in Australia , the ADRAC, had made public announcements about the risks in taking Ayurvedic medicines due to their high metal content. Actually this is far from the truth. Only a few Ayurvedic medicines actually use heavy metals in their ingredients. A similar problem occurred in Singapore , when four herbal medicines were banned in quick succession. Countries like USA and Canada are continually sending disclaimers and warnings to the public against the use of herbal medicines.

The Department of Ayush is trying to put a full stop to all such allegations about Ayurvedic medicines. That explains its recent decision to voluntarily submit the ingredients and manufacturing processes of each of their herbal medicines.