National Medicinal Plants Board sets up digital library

Coimbatore, Mar 17 (UNI) National Medicinal Plants Board has set up a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) and is translating over one lakh formulations of Ayurvedha and Unani medicines into five different languages to obtain patent in different countries, Chief Executive Officer S B Sajwan said.

Talking to newsmen here yesterday, at an international conference on ''Globalisation of traditional, complementary and alternative systems of Medicine'', organised by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Mr Sajwan said Ayurvedha formulations were in Sanskrit language and Unani medicines in Urdu.

The TKDL has taken up the job of translating all the formulations into in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese languages to make it easy to get patent and help exports, he added.

The Government is spending about Rs 20 crore for the project and the Board is working for the production of quality medicinal plants, besides creating awareness among the farmers, he said.

Last year, the medicinal plants production in the country was worth Rs 7,000 crore. The country's export of medicinal plants was about Rs 900 crore which is expected to grow by 12 per cent this year.

On being asked about the recent controversy over Swami Ramdev's medicines, Mr Sajwan said they have collected two samples and sent them to the Uttaranchal Government for testing.

''We are yet to get the final result from them,'' he added.

All the medicinal plants will be monographed for getting patent and would be registered, he said.

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