The users and importers of Ayurvedic drugs from India in UK and European Union have taken strong objection to the recently introduced Ethnic Medicine Regulation restricting the import of these products to Europe. The new regulation takes effect from November 1.

The users and importers community have decided to approach the UK government and European Commission to exempt Ayurveda products from this legislation, informed sources said. India exports nearly Rs.350 crore of Ayurvedic products to European Union annually and the market for these products has been steadily growing in these countries.

Exporters of Ayurvedic drugs in India have already represented to the Union commerce ministry but no serious steps have been initiated by it or the department of ISM to convince the UK government about the wrong classification of these drugs. The sources said that the commerce ministry was to send a delegation to UK and European Commission to take up the matter but this has not happened yet. The government is still not prepared to form an expert committee to represent the case properly to the EC, the sources said.

It is in this context a group of Ayurveda users and well wishers in the UK have come forward to form an Ayurveda Foundation to fight for their right to access of Ayurveda drugs in Europe.

Praful Patel, managing director, Asia Fund Limited, a UK-based foreign institutional investor, who spearhead the Ayurveda movement in EU, is in the process of getting together a core group of Ayurveda experts, professionals and representatives of trade and industry, to present the scope of Ayurveda in EU to be recognized as a scientifically proven medicine area.

"Since the Indian government has singularly failed to protect the interest of Ayurveda industry abroad, in particular in European Union countries, who are currently debating the directives and legislations to regulate this area, we wanted to fight it out there as user community," says Patel.

At the same time, it is a major problem to get an authentic list of Ayurvedic medicines, its ingredients and its uses in a well documented manner, he said. As this information is going to be crucial to get Ayurveda medicines to be accepted by the medical agencies of European countries, any individual profile or monograph of medicine will have to be backed by scientific data there, he added.

According to Kishore V Chokani, chairman, Chemexcil, the council is preparing a paper on the status of status of Ayurvedic industry and the export potential of the same emphasizing the need of easing the European market entry for the Ayurvedic products. Chokani said that this paper would be presented to the government of India shortly for a desired action.

A document prepared by the Medicinal Control Agency (MCA) describing Ayurveda as ethnic remedies has been submitted to the UK government some time ago. By categorizing Ayurveda as ethnic remedies, these products will have to undergo stringent regimen of tests as detailed in the document. India now exports Ayurvedic medicines worth about Rs. 350 crore and the lion''s share goes to the European Union nations.