Will India lose its Ayurvedic heritage?

- Keerthi Reddy

For thousands of years, the common Karela (bitter gourd) has been valued by the people of India for its incredible curative properties. Despite its bitter taste, the Karela has always been considered as a vegetable with almost miraculous properties which range from curing diabetes to cleansing the blood of cancer patients. On May 4, 1999, however, the Karela along with Jamun, Brinjal and Gurmar became a patented herb when patent number 5,900,240 was granted to Cromak Research Inc. based in New Jersey. The scientists who own the patent are two non-resident Indians Onkar S Tomer and Kripanath Borah, and their colleague Peter Glomski. The patent was granted on edible herbal compositions comprising mixtures of at least two Indian herbs selected from a group consisting of syzygium cumini, popularly known as jamun, momordica charantia (bitter gourd or karela), solanum melongena (brinjal or egg plant) and gymnema sylvestre (gurmar).

Brinjal and Turmeric: Invaluable medicinal resources

The scientists have been granted the patent for their claim that they have developed a novel herbal drug for treatment of diabetes, including insulin-dependent diabetes, using mixtures of powders of at least two out of the four plants. The patent outright ignores the fact that these plants have been in use in India for thousands of years as a treatment for diabetes.

The medicinal properties of these and thousands of other medicinal plants are elaborately detailed in any number of Hindu texts. From the descriptions in the Caraka Samhita, Susruta Samhita, Brhatsamhita to the detailed pharmaceutical instructions Upavanavinoda, for centuries together India's scholars have been at the forefront of botanical medicine. The ancient Ayurveda has been a guide to good health and even spiritual enlightenment for thousands of generations of Indians. This natural science has by no means lost its influence or importance to today's world. It is in fact more relevant than ever to the present and future as modern technology enables us to explore the healing properties of the recommended plants even further.

Dhanvantari: The Hindu God of Health

It is in this context that the latest patents for traditional Indian medicine should be viewed. For by granting these types of patents, India's very ownership to this centuries old science is being threatened. Just as the insidious Aryan Invasion Theory has been exposed to be an imperialistic attempt by Christian historians to distort and undermine India's glorious heritage, so too is the granting of such patents an insidious attempt to undermine the basis of India's claim to Ayurveda.

Even if the ancient Indian texts were to be ignored by the ill motivated parties, they cannot ignore the fact that even in this century the Ayurvedic methods which detail the correct proportions and qualities of such herbal mixtures have been reported in such authoritative treatises like the Wealth of India', the Compendium of Indian Medicinal Plants', and the Treatise on Indian Medicinal Plants'. These texts have also been made available in the form of CD ROM's by government agencies to ensure that information on aspects such as India's biodiversity was widely available in the western world.

The leaves of Gur-Mar, and juice of Karela in particular are the most important ingredients in Ayurvedic antidotes for diabetes. The grant of such a patent clearly means that any Indian manufacturer who wants to create any anti- diabetic drugs based on these plants will have to pay a royalty or fees in order to market such a drug in the United States. In other words such a patent clearly puts the control of the profits made from such beneficial drugs into the hands of American Companies such as Cromak Research and essentially deprives Indian companies the ability to market such drugs, without having to give up a good portion of their profits to the US firm.

Neem and Karela: Two of the threatened Ayurvedic ingredients

Just a few months ago, Indians were shocked to discover that the U.S. Patent Office had granted a similar patent to a group of researchers of the University of Mississippi Medical Centre for using turmeric as a wound-healing agent. Fortunately the Patent Facilitation Cell (PFC) under the Department of Science and Technology brought the patent to the Governments attention. The issue was then followed up by the CSIR and it successfully challenged the patent to get it cancelled. A similar problem had occurred with the Neem plant.

What is significant however is that the granting of such patents not only undermines India's traditional sciences and deprives Indian manufacturers of the right to full profit from such drugs, but also harms India's plans to sell any newly discovered medicinal usages from such plants.

As an example Indian researchers have discovered that Karela alone has many curative properties which had hitherto gone unexplored. When the chemicals in Karela seeds were purified, it was discovered that they contained an inhibitor of HIV, the Aids Virus. In addition Indian scientists who were guided by ancient Indian texts also found that Karela juice is a useful therapeutic agent for treating tumours and purifying blood. The fruit and seeds are reported to exhibit anti-leukemia, antiviral and anti-ulcer properties. The Lectins and fatty oil in the Karela seeds exhibited antibacterial activity. The oil also showed significant insecticidal propensities. Given the incredible usefulness of the humble Karela alone, one's mind is boggled by the curative potential of thousands of Indian vegetables, herbs and fruits.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the centuries-old Indian Science of Ayurveda is being questioned and threatened by the West, most notably by the United States. There is mounting American pressure to include it in the ambit of the Indian Patent Act. The Indian Patent Act, was passed by Parliament in December, 1998. A later ordinance, incorporating amendments to the act, had excluded Ayurveda from its ambit. However, the US went to the World Trade Organisation, which issued India an ultimatum to include Ayurveda under the purview of the act before April 19.

The inclusion of Ayurveda in the act would create a severe crisis for the small and big manufacturers in the sector . In addition to hundreds of thousands of employees in the field being jobless, it would simply give away India's rights to freely use the botanical elements, which comprise the ageless science of Ayurveda. The US has also demanded that the term for existing patents be raised from seven to 20 years, that a mailbox be opened for patent applications, that the Plant Variety Protection bill should give rights to the scientists.

Agreeing to the American demand to bring in product patents instead of process patents would make India lose its right to almost ALL Ayurveda combinations to foreign players. The greatest danger that such an action could create is the potential for foreign groups to later claim that the Indian combinations had some elements from products, which were patented by them. What this means in simple terms is that India may have to end up PAYING to use the very same Ayurvedic ingredients which it has introduced to the world! Over and above this if foreign groups were to demand exclusive rights to ingredients, then the price of Ayurvedic preparations would go up to astronomical proportions, which would put them far beyond the buying capacity of the common man.

Ayurveda is the ageless scientific and spiritual traditional property of India. It is the most comprehensive and complete system of natural healing. The wisdom that such a tradition engenders is invaluable and eternal. No one has a right to own any parts of such a system. The very concept of Ayurveda comes from the Sanskrit Ayu - meaning Longevity of age and Veda - meaning knowledge. Therefore, Ayurveda is essentially the Science of Longevity. The wisdom of the eternal Hindu Rishis who have gifted humanity with such timeless knowledge, cannot be packaged, copyrighted or patented. It belongs to all of humanity.

For India to lose its rights of ownership to such an integral Hindu science, would be like negating the entire heritage and identity of India. Only Indians can ensure that such a disaster does not take place.

This article was originally published at The Sword of Truth and is reproduced here with their kind permission.

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