BHUBANESWAR: The Centre is in the process of identifying medicinal plants and produce available in different states in a bid to document them and fix a minimum support price. The Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) must come forward to help identify the plants and products that can be used for health benefits, said experts at a national conclave here recently.
Addressing the two-day conclave on ‘Ethnopharmacology-translational perspectives towards modern medicine’, former director of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI) Prof AB Ota said ILS can be used as a platform to enlist medicinal plants and produce so that the comprehensive document, which is in the offing, can have better representation from Odisha.
“The recently released encyclopedia of tribes in Odisha published by SCSTRTI has documented 532 different kinds of medicinal plants found in the state. Though no scientific analysis has been done, there is mention of the kinds of diseases treated by the plants and their produce. Pharmacology studies need to be done on these plants,” he suggested.
Although the country is a rich source of medicinal plants that have high value as natural therapeutics, most of the knowledge about the medicinal use of these resources have been lost over the years since they are usually passed on through generations by traditional healers, a community that is declining.
“We have been focusing on ways to revitalise traditional medicine through intellectual dialogue between scientists, young scholars, pharmacologists and most importantly, traditional healers from tribal pockets of the state,” said ILS director Prof Pulok K Mukherjee.
Ancient medicines, Prof Mukherjee said, should be documented, scientifically validated and explored for the development of nutraceuticals, phytopharmaceuticals and AYUSH drugs in future to evolve them from tradition to innovation. More than 30 healers from various tribal pockets of Odisha shared their knowledge of different plants and herbs that could be the source of the next miracle drug.