AP Ayush: Concoction is not Ayurvedic medicine

The Ayush department team studying the concoction prepared by Bonigi Anandaiah at Krishnapatnam and hawked as a cure for Covid-19 cannot be termed an Ayurvedic medicine.

They said that Ayush protocols and guidelines do not accept these preparations as Ayurvedic drugs. They felt that the preparations were similar to traditional local medicines, hinting that there is no need for any licence.

Speaking to this newspaper, Commissioner of Ayush and head of the team, Col. V. Ramulu, said that there are no harmful ingredients in the substance being given by Anandaiah, including the eye drops.

“Anandaiah prepared all them before us and the process is very simple for anyone to produce. Moreover, he is willing to share the formula with the public,” he said.

The Ayush official said that Anandaiah has been using herbs including locally available leaves such as neem, mango and jamun apart from honey, pepper, green camphor, nutmeg, black cumin, turmeric and cinnamon

among many other items, “which we use daily for preparing food items.”

In the eye drops, Anandaiah has been using pepper, mulla vankaya and honey, Col Ramulu noted.

He said that the preparation cannot be prescribed for Covid-19 as the formula is one among hundreds

of local remedies for different ailments. Citing an instance, he pointed to the popular Puttur treatment for broken bones.

Col Ramulu said they would submit a report to the government on their study. It is up to the government to take a decision, he told this newspaper.