Unorganized Sector
Indian Traditional Medicines – An unorganized sector
In India most of the villages are not having sufficient medical facilities. But all the
villages have the traditional medicines and treatments to cure all the diseases. The
English medicines are not supplied in most of the villages. The Government and
Social Service Organizations started providing medical facilities in Tamil Nadu
villages but they could not cover all the rural population with adequate facilities.
The rural population has to depend on the local ethnic doctor called “VAITHYAR” in
Tamil. They prepare medicines from the medicinal plants available in the soil. They
follow all the traditional and ethnic method of preparing the medicines.
Now, the people around the globe started realizing the importance of the traditional
medicines prepared from the medicinal plants. The urban residents started using
homeopathic, ayurvedic and sidda medicines for treating most of the diseases. They
prefer this medicine because it does not have any side effects even in the long run.
They feel that these are natural medicines. So the Homeopathic, Aurvedic and Sidda
medicines are revitalised and the demand for such medicines are started shooting
up. The homeopathic, aurvedic and sidda medicines are prepared from medicinal
plants, which are naturally available in the soil.
In India the medicinal plants are found in hedges, wastelands, fields, water logged
areas, sacred groves, house gardens, temple gardens, tree branches etc. The seeds,
nuts, fruits, flowers, buds, leaves, stems, roots, tubers, barks etc of the medicinal
plants are used directly as medicines. The medicinal plants have different tastes
such as sweet, bitter, sour etc. The powder, paste, extract, smoke, ashes, oil and
juices are made from the fresh and dried medicinal plants according to their
traditions and used them as medicines. Such form of medicines are consumed and
/or applied on external physic to cure the diseases.
The medicinal plants do not require any special care to grow. It is easy to cultivate
and grow. The Head of the department Botany, Dr. Sobana Raj, Scott Christian
College, Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, India, identified and prepared a list of cultivable
medicinal plants.
The cultivable medicinal plants with Botanical name and the family are given below.
The medicinal plants are processed into consumable form such as powder, paste,
extract, smoke, ashes, oil and juice for curing different diseases. They prevent and
cure most of the disease of human beings and animals. These are applied to cure
and prevent bile’s, sinus, mucus, cough, rheumatism, body pain, fever, throat pain,
tonsils, piles, tooth ache, stomach pain, hiccups, beucoderma, toxins, jaundice,
rashes, dandruff, diabetics, ulcer, vomit, mouth ulcer, insect bites, dog bites, snake
bites, neck pain, snore, acidity, dysentery, arthritics and other disease of human
beings and animals. (Collected from the book “Meteria Medica”).
The medicinal plants are required in tones to prepare medicines for multinational
companies in India like
1. Dabur
2. Medimix
3. Hindustan Lever
4. Tata Pharmaceutical plants
5. Colgate Palmolive
To produce medicines, tablets, oil, soaps, paste, lotion, juice, syrup, extracts etc
made out of herbs.
Even though the medicinal plants have wider applications the growers are not
encouraged. Tamilnadu soil has good potentials for growing most of the medicinal
plants. The growers feel that there is no demand for the medicinal plants among the
manufacturers. The ‘VAITHYARS’ (manufacturers) feel that it is not a yielding sector.
The following are the problems identified out of the survey made on One hundred
‘VATHIYARS’ in Tamil Nadu.
1. Non- availability and non-cultivation of fresh medicinal plants in the soil (they
quoted that they find it difficult to get some fresh medicinal plants, green leaves,
fresh nuts, flowers, buds, roots etc to prepare the medicines).
2. No separate professional growers. It is even found that animals and human
beings destroy them.
3. Lack of financial assistance to cultivate and grow such medicinal plants.
4. No marketing facilities such as
i. Distribution network
ii. Standardization
iii. Customer relation and feed back
iv. Advertising network to intimate and educate
5. Adulteration in quality (It is quoted that some chemicals are added to make
extracts and oil more greenish).
6. No facilities to preserve seasonal medicinal plants, which cannot be dried and
preserved. (Certain medicines require only fresh plants)
7. No facilities for research and developments especially in rural areas.
Problems identified from a survey made from 500 customers using Homeopathic,
Aurvedic and Sidda medicines in Chennai.
1. Non-availability of such medicines in all medical stores.
2. Fear of quality and adulteration.
3. No grading and standardization.
4. Lack of knowledge in using or applying it (as certain oil needs to have Special
massage).
5. Slow in healing wounds and curing diseases.
6. Difficult in consuming certain oils and medicines due to the typical taste of the
contents in them.
7. Strict diet control for a long period.
8. Not in injection form
9. Fresh medicinal plants are not comfortable to consume.
10. Slow in recovery.
11. Non-availability of certain medicines, for which, only fresh green plants need to
be grinded and consumed to cure the diseases.
Findings:
1. It is found that this sector is completely unorganized even though people from
traditional families (called “VAITHYARS”) are involved in preparing and marketing
the medicines processed from medicinal plants.
2. Growers are hardly available because of lack of buyers, non-availability of
institution encouraging the growers and lack of financial assistance.
a. No proper facility for collection, preservation and distribution for both processed
and fresh medicinal plants available at different places.
3. No authorized institution or agency to standardize and grade such medicines.
4. Non-availability of efficient distribution network.
5. Non-availability of medium to intimate and educate (It was quoted that some
medicines like oil and extracts require special knowledge about applying it.) the
users.
6. Many plants like cannabis sativa are used for preparing intoxicated drinks. Such
medicines are used as sensual drugs, which are hazardous to health.
Suggestion:
We could infer from the study that this sector is left unorganized even though many
government agencies involved in this sector. It could be of more useful if it is
organized and controlled by a separate forum to regulate the manufacturing,
grading, quality control, distribution and research and development of medicines
prepared from medicinal plants
It is concluded that the Indian traditional medicines are neglected and it needs to be
revitalized.