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India has a large potential in herbs
New Delhi, Oct 19: India has not been able to exploit fully its potential in the herbal plants and medicines sector and failed to get patents and ownership for many drugsthat have been used due to lack of awareness and proper documentation, experts said today.
New Delhi, Oct 19: India has not been able to exploit fully its potential in the herbal plants and medicines sector and failed to get patents and ownership for many drugs
that have been used due to lack of awareness and proper documentation, experts said today.
"There is a need to organise the sector as we have
tremendous potential in herbal medicines. Failure in
sensitising the researchers towards patent laws has resulted
in the poor show at international forums," Dr R A Mashelkar,
director general, Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR), told a symposium on `medicinal plants.`
The symposium is being organised by National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and Centre for Science and Technology of non aligned and other developing countries.
Mashelkar also called for setting up of a monitoring system for the whole process from sowing seeds to the final product for strict quality control.
Due to lack of proper monitoring system, many times herbal products are launched without assessment of the possible side effects, he said adding there was also a need to make researchers aware of patent laws.
"We need to organise a passport data of plants which includes name and other qualities to check gene piracy. It would prove beneficial in claiming ownership of herbs at international level," director, NBRI, P Pushpangadan said. Bureau Report
The symposium is being organised by National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and Centre for Science and Technology of non aligned and other developing countries.
Mashelkar also called for setting up of a monitoring system for the whole process from sowing seeds to the final product for strict quality control.
Due to lack of proper monitoring system, many times herbal products are launched without assessment of the possible side effects, he said adding there was also a need to make researchers aware of patent laws.
"We need to organise a passport data of plants which includes name and other qualities to check gene piracy. It would prove beneficial in claiming ownership of herbs at international level," director, NBRI, P Pushpangadan said. Bureau Report