The success story of Tu Youyou, whose work was based on herbal pharmacology of ancient China, should serve as a spur to researchers in Indian traditional medicine (“ >Revolutinary therapies ,” Editorial, Oct.7). The Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute has already started a study on harvesting of some of the forest species of medical plants. There are reports that over 250 pharmaceutical companies are getting benefited by the implementation of the Access Benefit Sharing guidelines issued in November 2014. In this context, the government needs to clear the ground for making medical plants available to research institutes.
C. Koshy John,
Pune This is the right time for both the central and State health departments to recognise our own researchers’ findings on the efficacy of Ocimum sanctum , commonly known as thulasi . The Ministry of AYUSH at the Centre and various Ayurveda institutes need to be supported further to conduct more scientific studies of thulasi ’s properties, get it published and patented. While researchers have found some evidence of thulasi acting against the protozoan plasmodium, it could also be checked for actions in inhibiting secondary complications in dengue and chikungunya.
B. Sundar Raman,
Coimbatore
