The Chennai-based Indian Medical Practitioners Co-operative Pharmacy and Stores Ltd (Impcops), which has been manufacturing more than one thousand Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani drugs for decades, will shortly start giving hands-on training on drug making methods and collection, preparation and purification of common plants and mineral substances, to the Ayush medical students of Tamil Nadu.

Prior to the programme, experts from the traditional practitioners’ society will visit each academic institution and give awareness classes to the students and faculties there. They will talk on mainly on how to prepare classical and proprietary drugs in the conventional way, and how to identify genuine raw drugs required for medicine preparation. According to Impcops sources, many manufacturing companies of Ayush drugs use fake raw drugs and it seems very difficult to differentiate the original from the duplicate materials. Students who are the future practitioners and manufacturers need to study this area, sources said.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, Dr R Kannan, president of Impcops, said the medicos in the Ayush institutions have little knowledge about preparation of medicines and identification of medicinal plants. Taking this aspect as big lacunae in the curriculum of Ayush education, Impcops has now decided to give training and awareness classes to the students of BSMS and BAMS. The third and fourth year students of the Siddha, Unani and Ayurveda medical colleges are selected for the training programme.

To begin with, the Society will hold awareness classes for the students and faculties of the Siddha Medical College in Munchirai in Kanyakumari district and Government Ayurveda Medical College in Nagercoil on April 19. Each institution will have two hour classes on production of traditional medicines, collection, identification and preservation of raw drugs, and on how to grow medicinal plants and herbs. A team of experts from Impcops, including its president Dr R Kannan and secretary, Dr K Ponsingh, will speak on different areas.

In the second phase, the third and fourth year students and faculties of the colleges will be invited to the production unit of the Impcops in Chennai to impart the methods of preparation. They will know how to identify pure raw materials and how to preserve it. The various drug making stages will benefit the students to become expert healers.

“Drug making uses a range of methods for preparing the herbs depending on how they will be used. Each method maintains the potencies of the herbs in different ways. Since diverse nature is in the process of preparation, the medical students need to learn the different stages of traditional drug making. We are making an opportunity for the Ayush medicos of all institutions in Tamil Nadu to gain knowledge about it,” said Dr Kannan.

Dr K Ponsingh, secretary of the Society, who is also an expert in different types of drug manufacturing, has explained that the training programme will make the participants understand how to assess the quality of raw drugs and mineral substances, how to determine correct dosage and different types of preparations of Siddha, Unani and Ayurveda drugs. There are specific directions for how to use the medicines like churna (powder), vati (pills), kalka (paste), swaras (fresh juice), kashaya (decoction) and cough syrups. These lessons are also included in the modules of the training programme.

The main reason to start a training programme for the medical students, according to Dr Kananan, is because of the poor industry-institution relation in Ayush sector in Tamil Nadu. He said no manufacturing industry in the state is willing to provide training to students in drug making. Impcops is a very big organization with all modern facilities and gradually it will expand the awareness classes and training to all the Ayush medical colleges.

The training programme will be of 15 days duration where the students will learn the preparation of drugs and post-manufacturing activities like encapsulation. Each participant will have to pay a small amount towards training fee.