If standardized ayurvedic medicines which can face any clinical trial are made available, India will have a bright future in the export market and the focus of attention should be on that area, said Santhosh Chowdhari, Union minister of state for health & family welfare.

According to her, India’s traditional system has high rating in the countries world over, and they consider us to be leaders in this area. The minister was inaugurating the buyer-seller meet at the ‘Oushadha Keralam-2013’, the national trade expo of medicinal plants, in Thrissur. Manufacturers of ayurvedic medicines, cultivators of medicinal plants and traders from across the country were present in the meeting.

“To maintain the efficacy and affordability of the indigenous medicines including Ayurveda, the manufacturers should always follow the good manufacturing practices with a holistic approach, but should not enter into commercialization. Medicinal plants form an important component of the plant resources of this country. Kerala is our leading state not only in production of herbs, but also in the area of clinical treatment as per our indigenous system of medicines,” said the Union minister.

The minister wanted the organisers to utilize the present opportunity to create the backward and forward linkages to increase the exports and to give remunerative prices to the growers of medicinal plants. In the coming decades, India will witness the popularity and use of traditional medicinal systems all over the world due to its efficacy and affordability. She said the demand for medicinal plants has increased considerably during the last three decades and this increased demand has led to over exploitation through unscientific methods of collection from the wild sources resulting in gradual depletion of a number of species of  plants and their scarcity. Considering the gravity of the problem, government of India established the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) under department of Ayush in the year 2000.

Regarding challenges in the field, the health minister said marketing of the produce has always been a problem faced by farmers engaged in cultivation of medicinal plants. They are not always getting remunerative prices. Unless the farmers get a reasonable price for their produce, they will not take up cultivation of these herbs and plants. On the other side, the medicine manufacturing industry is facing scarcity of the quality raw materials obtained from these medicinal plants.

While delivering the presidential address, the Member of Parliament, P C Chacko said there is no parallel healing system for Ayurveda anywhere in the world.

Dr D Ramanathan, managing director of Sitaram Ayurveda Pharmacy, Thrissur presented a report on the issues faced by medicinal plant cultivators in Kerala.