Indian Traditional Medicine - an Unorganized Sector

Neha Ashani

Management Student

In India most of the villages are not having sufficient medical facilities. But all the villages have the traditional medicines and treatments to cure all the diseases. The English medicines are not supplied in most of the villages. The Government and Social Service Organizations started providing medical facilities in Tamil Nadu villages but they could not cover all the rural population with adequate facilities. The rural population has to depend on the local ethnic doctor called “VAITHYAR” in Tamil. They prepare medicines from the medicinal plants available in the soil. They follow all the traditional and ethnic method of preparing the medicines.

Now, the people around the globe started realizing the importance of the traditional medicines prepared from the medicinal plants. The urban residents started using homeopathic, ayurvedic and sidda medicines for treating most of the diseases. They prefer this medicine because it does not have any side effects even in the long run. They feel that these are natural medicines. So the Homeopathic, Aurvedic and Sidda medicines are revitalised and the demand for such medicines are started shooting up. The homeopathic, aurvedic and sidda medicines are prepared from medicinal plants, which are naturally available in the soil.

In India the medicinal plants are found in hedges, wastelands, fields, water logged areas, sacred groves, house gardens, temple gardens, tree branches etc. The seeds, nuts, fruits, flowers, buds, leaves, stems, roots, tubers, barks etc of the medicinal plants are used directly as medicines. The medicinal plants have different tastes such as sweet, bitter, sour etc. The powder, paste, extract, smoke, ashes, oil and juices are made from the fresh and dried medicinal plants according to their traditions and used them as medicines. Such form of medicines are consumed and /or applied on external physic to cure the diseases.

Applications of medicinal plants:

The medicinal plants are processed into consumable form such as powder, paste, extract, smoke, ashes, oil and juice for curing different diseases. They prevent and cure most of the disease of human beings and animals. These are applied to cure and prevent bile’s, sinus, mucus, cough, rheumatism, body pain, fever, throat pain, tonsils, piles, tooth ache, stomach pain, hiccups, beucoderma, toxins, jaundice, rashes, dandruff, diabetics, ulcer, vomit, mouth ulcer, insect bites, dog bites, snake bites, neck pain, snore, acidity, dysentery, arthritics and other disease of human beings and animals. (Collected from the book “Meteria Medica”).

The medicinal plants are required in tones to prepare medicines for multinational companies in India like

1. Dabur
2. Medimix
3. Hindustan Lever
4. Tata Pharmaceutical plants
5. Colgate Palmolive

To produce medicines, tablets, oil, soaps, paste, lotion, juice, syrup, extracts etc made out of herbs.

Even though the medicinal plants have wider applications the growers are not encouraged. Tamilnadu soil has good potentials for growing most of the medicinal plants. The growers feel that there is no demand for the medicinal plants among the manufacturers. The ‘VAITHYARS’ (manufacturers) feel that it is not a yielding sector. The following are the problems identified out of the survey made on One hundred ‘VATHIYARS’ in Tamil Nadu.

1. Non- availability and non-cultivation of fresh medicinal plants in the soil (they quoted that they find it difficult to get some fresh medicinal plants, green leaves, fresh nuts, flowers, buds, roots etc to prepare the medicines).
2. No separate professional growers. It is even found that animals and human beings destroy them.
3. Lack of financial assistance to cultivate and grow such medicinal plants.
4. No marketing facilities such as
i. Distribution network
ii. Standardization
iii. Customer relation and feed back
iv. Advertising network to intimate and educate
5. Adulteration in quality (It is quoted that some chemicals are added to make extracts and oil more greenish).
6. No facilities to preserve seasonal medicinal plants, which cannot be dried and preserved. (Certain medicines require only fresh plants)
7. No facilities for research and developments especially in rural areas.

Problems identified from a survey made from 500 customers using Homeopathic, Aurvedic and Sidda medicines in Chennai.
1. Non-availability of such medicines in all medical stores.
2. Fear of quality and adulteration.
3. No grading and standardization.
4. Lack of knowledge in using or applying it (as certain oil needs to have Special massage).
5. Slow in healing wounds and curing diseases.
6. Difficult in consuming certain oils and medicines due to the typical taste of the contents in them.
7. Strict diet control for a long period.
8. Not in injection form
9. Fresh medicinal plants are not comfortable to consume.
10. Slow in recovery.
11. Non-availability of certain medicines, for which, only fresh green plants need to be grinded and consumed to cure the diseases.

Findings:

1. It is found that this sector is completely unorganized even though people from traditional families (called “VAITHYARS”) are involved in preparing and marketing the medicines processed from medicinal plants.
2. Growers are hardly available because of lack of buyers, non-availability of institution encouraging the growers and lack of financial assistance.
a. No proper facility for collection, preservation and distribution for both processed and fresh medicinal plants available at different places.
3. No authorized institution or agency to standardize and grade such medicines.
4. Non-availability of efficient distribution network.
5. Non-availability of medium to intimate and educate (It was quoted that some medicines like oil and extracts require special knowledge about applying it.) the users.
6. Many plants like cannabis sativa are used for preparing intoxicated drinks. Such medicines are used as sensual drugs, which are hazardous to health.

Suggestion:

We could infer from the study that this sector is left unorganized even though many government agencies involved in this sector. It could be of more useful if it is organized and controlled by a separate forum to regulate the manufacturing, grading, quality control, distribution and research and development of medicines prepared from medicinal plants

It is concluded that the Indian traditional medicines are neglected and it needs to be revitalized.