ICMR signs deal to take ‘ancient wisdom’ to modern drug labs

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) today signed an MoU with the National Innovative Foundation, an Ahmedabad-based organisation which for seven years has collected traditional knowledge, not recorded in any classical texts. The organisation has travelled across 400 districts and claims to have collected information about 10,000 cases of herbal medication.

After the MoU, the ICMR would have access to the data collected by the organisation. ‘‘The foundation will be required to authenticate their claims by the Biological Survey of India—that the plant or its new use has not been mentioned anywhere in the classical texts. The ICMR and other institutes under it would then test the plants to see if there is a possibility of developing a drug,’’ said Dr Vasanta Muthuswamy, DDG, ICMR. The ICMR would then conduct trials for the molecules developed.

In case the trials are successful, the innovator or the person who passed on the traditional knowledge will get the benefits.

The NIF has already passed 20 such medicinal plants to the ICMR and research is likely to be started soon. ‘‘About 10 projects has been assigned to the scientists who with the help of the traditional knowledge-holder will make proposals for drug development… India has about 43,000 species of plants and only 1,600 are documented in the classical texts,’’ said Dr Anil Gupta, vice-chairman of the NIF and professor at IIM Ahmedabad.