CHENNAI: The centre is mulling procuring Kabasura Kudineer, a herbal concoction prepared and promoted by from the Tamil Nadu Medicinal Plants and Herbal Medicine Corporation Limited (TAMPCOL), amid the rising Covid-19 cases in China and other countries. The Ministry of AYUSH wants to distribute the herbal drink, which Tamil Nadu used during the peak of the pandemic.
In a meeting with industries to assess the efficacy of Covid-related medicines on December 26, AYUSH asked TAMPCOL, a herbal medicine manufacturing and marketing firm, if it can supply the ‘herbal drink’ kits available in the market, across the country.
G Arumugam, Production Manager, TAMPCOL said, “The ministry has asked if TAMPCOL can supply Kabasura Kudineer as 100 gm packets, and daily production capacity of its units in Tamil Nadu.”
An official, however, mentioned that discussions are still at a nascent stage. The price of the product and other logistics are yet to be finalised. “During the peak of Covid-19, in 2020-21, TAMPCOL supplied 3.04 lakh kg of Kabasura Kudineer to government hospitals, municipal corporations, and panchayat unions,” said Arumugam.
The next year, TAMPCOL produced 1.37 lakh kg, he added. Following this, many studies were conducted to assess Kabasura Kudineer’s efficacy in treating symptomatic and mild Covid-19 cases, say officials.
M Pitchiah Kumar, State Licensing Authority (Indian Medicine), Directorate of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy said, first, a docking study was conducted to examine if this was effective or not, in 2020.
“A randomised control study was conducted at the Government Stanley Medical College Hospital to study the efficacy of Siddha Medicine’s Kabasura Kudineer compared to vitamin C and zinc supplementaries in managing asymptomatic Covid-19 cases. The study was published in an open-access journal publishing peer-reviewed contributions,” added Kumar, one of the authors of the study.