The Indian Medical Practitioners' Co-operative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (Impcops), an association of traditional medicine practitioners, will soon establish a testing laboratory at Thiruvanmiyur in Chennai which will benefit hundreds of small-scale manufacturers of Indian Medicines in Tamil Nadu as they can get their products tested at nominal charges.

"At present, the producers of the ayurveda, siddha and unani (ASU) medicines are sending their products to private laboratories for testing and have to spend huge amount of money as fees which force them to sell the products at higher prices. Not every small-scale producer can afford a testing laboratory or a state-of-the-art facility in their units. So our attempt is to help the manufacturers at the maximum level", Impcops president Dr Ramalingam said.

Dr Joseph Thas, president, Friends of Siddha Medicine, Tirunelveli, said a proposal for building a Drug Testing Lab for Indian Medicines has been pending with the Indian Medicine Commissionarate for the last 25 years and if it is materialized, that alone would do a lot for the small scale producers in the state. He said there is no accredited laboratory in the private sector for testing the traditional medicines and added that the Government of India has so far not enforced any pharmacopial standards mandatory for Indian medicines.

According to the Impcops president, the method of production of Indian medicines and modern medicines are different, so the laboratory for the traditional medicines will not be in the same manner as that of allopathic medicine companies. For conducting quality control examinations in compliance with the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, the Society has now an analytical laboratory comprising of botany and chemistry wings. The raw drugs and the finished products are systematically analysed in the lab batch after batch every day.

He said that after a thorough inspection in the manufacturing facilities, the state drug controlling authorities have granted GMP Certificate to the Society's facility recently.

Further to this development, the medical practitioners' association plans to build one hospital for Indian Medicines with all facilities to benefit the public also. Those patients who need a complete authentic treatment in the systems are targeted and the hospital will have an in-patient ward also.

While briefing on the future programmes, Dr Ramalingam said, "We need quality milk and allied raw materials for our medicinal preparations thus keeping an eye on further improving the standards of the Society's medicines. For the benefit of the small scale manufacturers and also for Impcops' requirements, an oil mill and a plastic container manufacturing unit are also in the list".

Targeting the students and research scholars, he said, the association will purchase some land in the periphery or the city for the cultivation of medicinal plants and to develop a herbal garden.