With the clinical trial of Ayush medicines beginning on Thursday, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director-General Shekhar Mande said that the time is absolutely ripe currently to try out some of the traditional Ayurvedic formulations amid the corona battle.
The clinical trial of Ayush medicines on health workers and those working in COVID-19 high-risk areas have begun today, said Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.
"Clinical trials of Ayush medicines like Ashwagandha, Yashtimadhu, Guduchi Pippali, Ayush-64 on health workers and those working in high-risk areas has begun from today," he said.
The clinical trial would be done as a joint initiative of Ministry of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science and Technology through Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) with technical support of Indian Council of Medical Research, the minister said.
CSIR Director General Mande said: "What we have done today is that with the Ministry of Ayush, there has been a long-felt need for that many of the Ayurvedic formulations, we should actually try from modern science perspective so that we get the acceptability," he said.
Mande said that Ayurveda is based on thousands of years of clinical practices that have been followed. "So we trust that. The only thing is, we are not able to show the mechsm of action like modern medicine does."
"Ayurvedic practices have existed much before the modern medicine practices came about and therefore it is important that we validate some of the Ayurvedic principles. So the time is absolutely right that in the Corona fight we try some of the Ayurvedic formulations against Corona," Mande said.
"The Chinese have done very well, in the traditional Chinese medicine practices they have been able to show some of the medicine as to why they are effective," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )