People from the Northeast States are endowed with good health as their diet comprises of various medicinal plants which keep their body fit.
“People of the Northeast consume a nutritional diet of many medicinal plants like Bacopa Monneri Penn, Centella Asiatica Urban, Discorea Bulbifera, Embelica Officinale Gaerth, Erygium Foeitdum and many other species found in the region that keep them fit,” speakers at a symposium on ‘Global Resurgence of Ayurveda and Yoga’ said here on Saturday.
The medicinal plants found abundantly in the Northeast were also used for healing, symposium Chairman R.K. Sharma said.
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“This shows that people of the region use herbal drugs in their day-to-day life which help to keep their bodies healthy,” Sharma said.
Of the 15,000 to 20,000 varieties of medicinal plants in the country, 7,000 to 7,500 were used by traditional medicine systems in India.
“Medicinal plants are the oldest known healthcare products and their importance is still growing although it varies depending on the ethnological, medicinal and historical background of each country,” Sharma said.
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He said that ayurvedic products as an alternative system of medicine, and many herbal products of Indian origin, had good potential to win a considerable share of the world market.
Ayurveda has been recognised as a healthcare system by the UK, the UAE, Sweden, Indonesia and the US. Thirty more countries would be accepting it as an alternative system of medicine.
In the light of such a situation, he said, there was a need for establishing backward and forward linkages for the herbal sector and strategies for their seamless integration for a sustainable growth-oriented performance, specifically on the export front.