The Captain Srinivasa Murti Drug Research Institute for Ayurveda (CSMDRIA), a branch of Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS) at Chennai, will soon undertake standardization of some anti-diabetic and anti-malarial drugs as part of a WHO-CCRAS collaborative research. Further, the centre has lined up few standardisation and validation projects of certain Ayurveda and Siddha drugs.

The project has been approved by the WHO-CCRAS and will take off soon. The institute had recently completed another project as part of a WHO-CCRAS tie-up on toxicity and standardization of five Ayurvedic formulations preparation. Soon the institute will undertake another research project to standardize a Siddha drug used in veterinary treatment, in collaboration with Department of Biotechnology. The clinical evaluation of the project will be under Veterinary University of Tamil Nadu and the Indian Medical practitioners Co-operative Pharmacy and Stores (IMPCOPS) will be the industrial partner for the project. The institute is completing four of its ongoing projects by March 2006.

Pharmacognosty, phyto-chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology studies of certain herbo-mineral Siddha drugs, a project in collaboration with SKM Health and Mind's Welfare Charity Trust and Siddha pharmaceuticals, is also in the pipeline, said Dr. A Saraswathy, Assistant Director, CSMDRIA told Pharmabiz.

CSMDRIA, into drug standardization and quality control of Ayurveda and Siddha drugs, is currently conducting four research projects apart from its routine works assigned by the CCRAS. Development of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of manufacturing process of Compound Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani drugs and Pharmacopoeial study and a project on heavy metal, Microbial load, Pesticides residue and Aflatoxins in Medicinal plants of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha formulations are among the other projects conducted in collaboration with Department of Ayush.

A project on assessing quality standards of Indian medicinal plants sponsored by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), in which raw materials from nine different geographical conditions are used for standardization and another project on pharmacognostical, chemical and biochemical evaluation of selected Siddha drugs used for AIDS which is sponsored by Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TNSACS) are the other research works conducted in CSMDRIA. The project report of these research works will be submitted to CCRAS by March 2006.

The institute has completed works on a central scheme to develop Pharmacopoeial standards of ISM drugs (sponsored by the department of AYUSH) and pharmaognostical, chemical and biochemical evaluation of Racakanti meluku, Amukkara Churanam, Nellikkai ilakam and six single drugs.