Magic shrub to get a revival

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Magic shrub to get a revival

 

12 Aug 2007, 0322 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN

 

 

It's a wonder shrub that is giving India's Rs 5,000 crore-worth

ayurveda industry sleepless nights. Guggul, a four-metre shrub, known

for its powers of reducing high cholesterol levels besides bringing

relief to patients suffering from rheumatic arthritis and thyroid,

has started to disappear from India.

 

Even though the gummy resin, harvested from the plant's bark through

tapping, is used in over 100 ayurvedic formulations, 90% of the

industry's requirement for the plant is met by Pakistan.

 

While the Indian ayurveda industry requires over 1,000 tonnes of the

resin annually, only 10% of it is generated here. This has now made

the country's National Medicinal Plants Board declare the cultivation

of Guggul a priority. Union health minister A Ramadoss recently

sanctioned a Guggul revival project which will conduct research on

the plant besides finding ways to popularise its cultivation among

Indian farmers.

 

Four institutes †" National Research Centre for Medical and Aromatic

Plants (Gandhinagar), Central Arid Zone Research Institute (Jodhpur),

Agricultural Research Institute (Gujarat) and Central Institute of

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (Lucknow), have been asked to start

research on this plant. Scientists will look at how to make this

plant grow across India (at present it only grows in arid zones), how

to make it produce the resin at regular intervals (at present, it

exudes gum every 10-12 years), how to extend its lifespan (it dies

after the gum is extracted) and how to improve its germination.

 

Speaking to TOI, B S Sajwan, CEO of NMPB, said, " With such a huge

requirement, we can't depend solely on its import from Pakistan. For

its largescale requirement, the plant has to be available in large

quantities across India. We have, therefore, decided to revive the

plant. "

 

There has been a surge in the interest over Guggul in the West. Dr

David Moore from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston recently

reported that " the 2,500-year-old traditional Indian medication for

lowering cholesterol really works " .

 

The Central Drug Research Institute had developed drugs to reduce

cholesterol with Guggul in the 1970s. Sushruta Samahita †" the ancient

text on ayurveda †" also refers to Guggul, which acts as an anti-

inflammatory agent too.

 

It was over 40 years ago that Dr G V Satyavati, former DG of the

Indian Council of Medical Research, first reported the hypolipidemic

action of Guggul in a thesis submitted to the Benaras Hindu

University. She also discovered that it lowered serum cholesterol

level and cut down on obesity.

 

 

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthScience/Magic_shrub_to_get_a_

revival/articleshow/2274821.cms