Aarogyapacha, the plant containing the major ingredient of Jeevani is being smuggled out of the country on a large scale to help overseas firms to market this plant based products in the global markets, it is learnt.

Informed sources told Pharmabiz that overseas firms had been sourcing Aarogyapacha (Trichopus Zeylanicus ssp. Travancoricus) through shady operations, as the Coimbatore Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, the original licensed manufacturer could not cater to their demands. At least a dozen odd products are still available in the US market and online medical shops with either Jeevani or Aarogyapacha content, as revealed by Pharmabiz earlier.

With the connivance of a section of middlemen and bribing the Kani tribals, the representatives of these companies in India have been smuggling out the herb for sometime from the forests of Agasthyar hills, the natural habitat of Aarogyapacha. Since it was impossible to export the rare herb with the approval of government authorities, dried Aarogyapacha mixed with a few other herbs and ingredients was being smuggled out under various medicinal plant names and herbs, the sources said.

Firms like Nutrisciences International LLC, which took product patent for Jeevani in US, still manufacture and sell innovative herbal food supplements with "Jeevani', the Aarogyapacha content, in the global market, said the sources. This includes a few food supplements like herbal biscuits.

However, the sources said they were not sure whether the smuggled herbs were meant exclusively for Nutrisciences International, or for other firms in US involved in manufacturing and marketing of Aarogyapacha and Jeevani based products. The sources also alleged involvement of a few Malayalee NRIs based in US for the unabated supply of the herb, touted equally potential to Korean Ginseng.

Interestingly, the Coimbatore based AVP had discontinued its manufacturing a few months ago due to scarcity of the herb and for other reasons. Even during the seven-year license period, the company could not manufacture in accordance to the demand due to unavailability of Aarogyapacha.

It is to be noted that even within months of the technology transfer of Jeevani during 1995-96, the State Forest Department had prevented the Kanis from taking the rare herb out of the forest citing the shrub was not included in the Minor Forest Produce Act, and the tribals are allowed to take out only products of that category.

Further, the officials had then observed rampant contrabands of Aarogyapacha from the forest. Though then it was perceived as a move of AVP, sources now feel it could have been for smuggling the herb out of the country.

Confirming this, a top level ISM expert and former AVP management member who masterminded the technology transfer said AVP had made only 25,000 bottles of the drug during 1995-96, and it was as per the official supplies of TBGRI. Thereafter, production was negligible, though it had supplied to the US market one or two bulk quantities as per the Nutrisciences order. "Since AVP could not cater to their demand, they may have sourced Aarogyapacha through other ways and sources" noted the source.

During that period, the government had initiated a scheme to help the 16,000 odd Kanis grow the herb under the Integrated Tribal Development Project, in collaboration with TBGRI in and around the Kani settlements. It is said that about 50 select families received Rs.1,000 each and about 20.25 hectares were cultivated with Aarogyapacha. Alleging destructing selling and smuggling of the rare plant, the forest officials had confiscated huge quantity of Aarogyapacha from the Kanis, including uprooted shrubs. During the same period, the forest officials also had seized about 10,500 Aarogyapacha plants from a private nursery at Vithura village in Thiruvananthapuram.