THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A National Centre of Excellence for Ayurveda-Inspired Discovery is being set up at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), which will be formally announced by Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik on January 11.
The Centre for Excellence, which anticipates support from the Ministry of AYUSH, will lead research into efficacy mechanisms involved in ayurvedic therapeutics as well as develop standardisation protocols and certification systems to help traditional medicines gain global acceptability.
It will also lead research programmes to identify active compounds in medicinal plants and herbal formulations, their molecular targets and pathways to discover potential therapeutic uses for them.
Among the objectives of the Centre of Excellence will be the analysis of ayurvedic therapeutics for treatment response and their effect on patho-physiological processes and developing uniform protocols, compositions and components. The herbal products will be characterised using advanced technologies such as genetic bar coding, genetic fingerprinting and mass spectroscopy.
The project will also include a research centre to study medicinal plant conservation, metabolic engineering to improve active plant components and a discovery programme looking for therapeutically significant molecules and compounds. Two independent but cooperating sister campuses are proposed under the new centre; one will be an Ayurvedic Clinical Research Centre at Konni and the second a High-Altitude Discovery Centre at Munnar.
Leading bio-medical companies such as Central public sector undertaking HLL Lifecare Limited and other ayurveda-based companies and organisations are expected to be partners in the project.
During the announcement of the Centre, RGCB director M Radhakrishna Pillai and chairman and managing director of HLL Lifecare Ltd M Ayyappan, will be present, among others.
The Union Minister will also announce the National Arogya Expo 2015 which will be held here this year by the World Ayurveda Foundation (WAF), an initiative of Vijnana Bharati, in partnership with the RGCB.