Canada bows to Indian pressure, promises to review ayurveda decision.

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

In a very small report that has appeared in the print edition of The Telegraph,

India, on Sep 23, it has been revealed that Canada has promised to reconsider

its decision to ban the entry of Indian ayurvedic products on the allegation of

heavy metal contamination. It has admitted that though the " tests " have detected

the presence of heavy metals it has never received any complaints about toxicity

from either any patient nor practitioner. It has agreed to retest the herbal

products as per the suggestions of the Indian Government. India too has promised

to verify its own testing methods.

 

The report has not been reproduced in the online edition of the newspaper. It is

also surprising that while the Canadian decision to ban the herbal products made

prime headline news on the front page of the newspaper, this report has been

tucked away in a remote corner of the paper.

 

My own reaction to the original contamination report can be read here;

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050828/asp/opinion/story_5160228.asp

 

-

 

Sir — Herbal medicine being a huge success the world over, the drug industry’s

concern over ayurveda is understandable. The American FDA has banned herbal

products from being sold over the counter and the Indian drugs industry is

itching to follow. If this does come about, then millions of Indians will be

deprived of an effective alternative to allopathy.

 

But suggestions, like the one by Raghunath Mashelkar, of making ayurvedic

medicine more acceptable by isolating the “active ingredients” of herbs and then

finding a chemical equivalent for them, will not work (“Herbal warning falls on

deaf ears”, Aug 20). Using herbs is not all there is to ayurveda. It is a proven

method of preventing illness and treating the sick with medicines derived from

minerals and the plant and animal kingdom, based on certain principles and

depending on the physical and mental make-up of individual patients.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

Jagannath Chatterjee, Bhubaneswar

 

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Regards,

 

Jagannath.

 

 

 

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