The scientists associated with Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have secured a US Patent (No - 6,896,901) for the novel use of gum guggul resin, an ayurvedic drug known for its lipid lowering effect. The scientists have found that Gugulipid, an ethylacetate soluble fraction of gum guggul, possessed cognitive and anti-hyperglycemic activities and could be used for cognitive memory dysfunction. The method of preparing Gugulipid has also been patented.

The scientists claim that gugulipid in combination with or associated with additive can be used for controlling or preventing cognitive dysfunction, hyperglycemia and some infective conditions of the skin in mammals. The medicine is useful to patients suffering from human memory dysfunctions like Alzheimers disease and Korsakoff's disease alone or in combination with other treatments, they stated.

Guggul, highly valued in Indian system of medicines, is the gum resin exudate of a small tree Commiphora wighitii belonging to the family Burseraceae. It is specially recommended for the treatment of obesity, lipid disorders and rheumatoid arthritis. In Tibetan medicine, the plant mixed with other herbs is used for skin diseases, anaemia, edema, salivation and heaviness of stomach. Modern pharmacological studies on the crude drug and some of its fractions have also supported the claims of Ayurveda. These claims included its anti-arthritis, anti-inflammatory, hypolipidemic and anti-atherosclerotic properties. Later on, its ethyl acetate extract was developed by joint efforts of Malti-Chem Research Centre, Baroda and Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow as hypolipidemic drug. A mixed type of mechanism has been implicated for lipid lowering effect of gugulipid. With the discovery of hypolipidemic activity of the gum resin, systematic chemical investigations were carried out to characterize compounds of the gum resin responsible for hypolipidemic activity. The current invention comes as an advancement of these developments.

The scientists involved in the research programme are Ram Pratap, Raghwendra Pal, Satyawan Singh, Girja Shankar, Chandeshwar Nath, Hemant Kumar Singh, Depak Raina, Arwind Kumar Srivastava, Anil Kumar Rastogi, Puvvada Murthy, Sudhir Srivastava, Onkar Prasad Asthana, Narenda Singh and Nitya Nand.