Dept of Ayush releases guidelines

Dept of Ayush releases guidelines for conservation & development of medicinal plants
Suja Nair Shirodkar, Mumbai
Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 08:00 Hrs [IST]

Department of Ayush has released a set of operational guidelines for the central sector scheme for the conservation, development and sustainable management of medicinal plants. The aim behind releasing this guidelines was to promote availability of quality plant based raw material for both Ayush and folk systems in the country.

The guideline mentions that the medicinal plants form a major resource base of India's indigenous health care traditions. Statistics indicate that more than 90 per cent of the species used in trade continue to be sourced from wild of which about third are harvested by destructive means.

The note says, “Re-emergence of interest in herbal plant based healthcare globally, on one hand and unsustainable collection from the wild without adequate efforts at conservation and sustainable harvest, on the other hand are resulting in a large number of species coming under serious threat of extinction leading to use of substitutes and adulterants thereby affecting the efficacy and safety of the Ayush and herbal products.”

Through this scheme the government will be ensuring sustained supply of quality medicinal plants through programmes of in-situ conservation, survey and documentation, ex situ conservation of endangered and threatened species of medicinal plants, R&D, training and awareness and promotional activities like creation of home and school herbal etc.

The scheme also seeks to support programmes for quality assurance and standardisation through development of Good Agriculture and Collection Practices (GACP); development of monographs laying down standards of quality, safety and efficacy; development of agro-techniques and a credible institutional mechanism for certification of quality of raw drugs, seeds and planting material.

Department of Ayush aims to promote sustainable harvesting protocols of medicinal plants from forest areas and certification thereof and establish gene banks or seed orchards to create an authentic source of seed and germplasm for future.

The Department is hopeful that by implementing this scheme they will be able to able to develop protocols for cultivation and quality control which will help and encourage the protection of patent rights and IPR.