Kalam stresses on efforts to popularise tradtional medicines

Mandalay, Mar 10 (UNI) Traditional medicines in both India and Myanmar are facing a ''crisis of acceptance and marketability'', even as the two countries are endowed with plants and herbs having great medicinal and curative properties, President APJ Abdul Kalam said today.

A votary of Ayurvedic, Unani and other forms of traditional medicines himself, Dr Kalam said while allopathic system of medicines was based on rigorous scientific research, the indigenous systems was facing a crisis of confidence, especially in urban areas.

Observing that the two countries were repositories of a great variety of flora and fauna, the President stressed the need to collaborate their efforts to popularise Ayurvedic medicines at an affordable cost to the people.

In an interactive meeting with professors, faculty members and students of the University of Traditional medicines here, Dr Kalam said traditional systems should adopt a more scientific research for greater acceptability.

''In the rural areas and small towns, people are using ayurvedic and other traditional medicines, the problem is in big urban centres, where these are confronted with a great challenge from allopathic system,'' he observed.

Dr Kalam said he has developed two herbal gardens in the sprawling Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan. While one of the gardens has 36 types of herbs, which are ''commercially exploitable'' for diseases like malaria, high blood pressure and diabetes, the other one has 108 herbs and medicinal plants, which are based on the eight systems of a human body.

He said there was a great scope for the two countries to standardise the formulation of medicines and their exchange for research.

They allopathic medicines take nearly 10-15 years to become acceptable after undergoing a wide variety of research work, whereas, the traditional system of medicines require only 6-7 years, he added.

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