Mississippi-based Centre for Research in Indian Systems of Medicine (CRISM) has launched a process to ensure scientific validation and wider acceptance to Indian systems of medicines through collaborative efforts, in America and other countries.
The Centre has already organized a few symposiums involving scientists and industry representatives from India and the US in the past and is in the process of codifying the scientific and policy inputs generated. The Department of Ayush which is facilitating the attempts has held meeting recently with CRISM authorities to assess the progress of the works, sources in the Department said.
The efforts have been made to design, formulate and implement policy for promoting, propagating Indian systems of medicine including Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha in the global perspective through collaborative research programmes, he said.
The Indo-US joint venture was established at National Centre for Natural Product Research (NCNPR), the University of Mississippi, Mississippi, USA in 2008, as part of an earlier Memorandum of Understanding for scientific cooperation in the field of ‘botanicals’ signed between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research through its constituent, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu with the University of Mississippi.
Ayush department is giving financial support, along with the necessary skill, expertise, knowledge and resources through its constituent councils, departments and other associated institutions engaged in research & development and teaching in the areas of Indian systems of medicine.
An Indo-US symposium on Indian medicines organised by Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) in December with the theme of ‘Methodology of Research in Indian Systems of Medicine,’ gave valuable inputs towards the process of establishing wider acceptance to Ayush products abroad, the department official said. Many more such collaborative programmes like research, dialogues between the regulatory sides, and validation of knowledge are being planned for the purpose of generating data base and scientific inputs, sources added.
The last year’s Indo-US symposium focused on the development and marketing of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani drugs in global market starting with good agricultural and collection practices for raw material to quality control, standardization, manufacture following Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and regulatory compliance of the finished products.
With the increasing interest and demand in traditional medicine across the globe, more stringent regulations have been put in place in various countries for licensing of their products. The regulations address not only the safety profile and quality of such products but also efficacy studies to substantiate the therapeutic claims. The ultimate goal is to harmonise the Indian standards with the global parameters, sources said.