How Healthy is India Inc?

With their most important ingredient on ASEAN’S Negative Ingredient List, traditional medicine practitioners and manufacturers cry foul

As the global downturn fills most people with fear and doubt about the future, doctors send out a health warning. Spiralling stress at the workplace now stalks the power corridors of Corporate India.

Kerala’s famed Ayurveda world is aghast. For neem, a plant known as sarvarogasamhari ( panacea) in Ayurveda, is to be included by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) on its Negative Ingredient List, ostensibly to conserve it. Ayurveda practitioners say the prolific neem doesn’t need any conservation. “It’s not endangered. Conservation efforts are laudable, but it should be done by planting more trees, not by banning it from medicinal use,” says Karimpuzha Raman of Confederation for Ayurvedic Renaissance Keralam Limited ( Care Kerala), a state government- backed body.

The decision to include neem ( Azadirachta Indica) in the Negative List was taken at the 17th meeting of ASEAN’S Product Working Group for Traditional Medicines and Health Supplements ( TMHS) held at Singapore in June. It has led to fears of a possible ban or imposition of severe restrictions on the trade and use of neem- based traditional medicines and health supplements in ASEAN countries. “By depriving it of the benefits of one of its most essential medicinal ingredients, the ban will undermine our Ayurvedic system,” says Dr K. G. Raveendran, chief physician at Coimbatore’s Arya Vaidya Pharmacy. Though no reason for including neem on the list was given, Ayurveda professionals feel it was based on unfounded fears of neem’s “negative side- effects”. Ayurvedic drug manufacturers fear the decision will precipitate a major dip in Indian export of medicines and herbs to ASEAN countries.

Neem has been known in India for its medicinal properties. Besides being antiseptic, antifungal, analgesic and anti- infection, recent studies have shown its value in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, ulcers, diabetes and even cancer. Dr K. Muralidharan, additional chief physician at Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal, suspects the ASEAN decision is a move to divert its use for lucrative corporate products like organic insecticides. “Neem is a medicinal plant with no adverse effect, nor is there any alternative to it in Ayurveda,” he says. According to Mumbai- based NGO Neem Foundation, the plant’s parts are used to treat rashes, wounds, chicken pox, ulcers and jaundice.

Including neem on the list will devastate the trade of Siddha, Ayurveda and Unani medicines, according to the Association of Manufacturers of Ayurveda Medicines ( AMAM). “It will have a snowballing effect in other countries. This may be the beginning of an unjustified targeting of traditional herbs,” says AMAM President Pradeep Multani. AMAM has asked the secretary, Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy ( AYUSH), under the Union health ministry, to intervene. “Once included on the list, it’ll be difficult to sell neem-based products even here, with India getting closer to ASEAN,” says Dr D. Ramanathan, general secretary, Ayur-

THE BLOWTO NEEM HAS COME WHEN INDIA’S EXPORTS OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINES HAVE TOUCHED A RECORD HIGH.

vedic Medicine Manufacturers of India.

According to Pharmexcil ( Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India, under Ministry of Commerce and Industry), neem figures in the top 25 commodities of Indian Ayurvedic exports, having generated Rs 33.98 crore in 2009- 10, double that of the previous year. Care Kerala says the total market for products containing neem and its extracts is worth Rs 500 crore. “Neem could be called the most important ingredient in Ayurveda. There are more than 150 Ayurvedic compounds containing its different parts,” says Raman.

The blow to neem has come when India’s exports of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy medicines and herbs have touched Rs 1,312 crore in 2009- 10, from Rs 863 crore in 2007- 08. During this period India rose from sixth to third on the list of the world’s largest exporters of medicinal herbs, behind Canada and China.

With the Ayurveda industry’s requests to the Centre unheeded, the Kerala government has decided to step in. “We’ll discuss the issue with the Centre and plan what can be done,” says V. S. Sivakumar, Kerala’s health minister. He better move fast, as the state’s prosperity is intrinsically linked to its Ayurvedic tradition.