Traditional Medicine in Asia

asked to provide the recipes. Consumers
must be kept informed about how they can
access quality products and where tests can
be undertaken if doubts about quality are
experienced.
In India, pharmacopoeial standards
for 158 drugs are available and 634
formulations have been published in the
Ayurvedic Formulary of India. Likewise,
for Unani medicine pharmacopoeial
standards are available for 45 drugs and
a Unani Formulary for 603 formulations
is available. In respect of Homoeopathy,
pharmacopoeial standards are available
for 916 drugs. 28-35
In Ayurvedic and Unani formulations,
sometimes a single medication has over 50
ingredients and certainly even the simplest
medicines have 6–10 ingredients involving
the use of different parts of several plants.
Standardization is not a simple task and it
has to be undertaken and institutionalized
if the traditional medicine sector is to
secure a niche for itself in the health system.
Scientists have given numerous
suggestions about the standardization and
quality control of herbal drugs. In India,
the problems have been addressed
through a variety of measures, some of
which have already been implemented and
some are still in the process of being
introduced. In order to give an impetus to
Quality Control and Standardization, the
Department of Indian Systems of Medicine
and Homoeopathy has initiated schemes
to help strengthen the State Pharmacies
and State Drug Testing Laboratories to
become models for the proper formulation
of quality medicine for use in the public
sector and Government-run hospitals and
dispensaries. Side by side, recognition of
private laboratories which possess the
equipment and the scientific and technical
manpower as stipulated, and act as
Government-approved laboratories
Role of traditional systems of medicine in national health care systems
authorized to conduct quality control tests
and issue certification is also contemplated.
Traditional medicine can play a role in
the health system of a country if the system
and its medicaments have been prepared
in a manner that inspires confidence in the
quality and the Government supports the
use of such systems with the needed
controls. 36,37 Without this input, traditional
medicine can grow only in a haphazard
way and public confidence may get eroded
over time. Issues of quality have to be
confronted squarely and national and
provincial governments have to be made
aware of what is acceptable across the
world. Only then will traditional medicine
be able to achieve its due position in the
health system.
Issues of Integration
Indian Government’s Policy on
Traditional Medicine
The Central Council for Health and Family
Welfare, set up under Article 226 of the
Constitution of India, is the highest policymaking
body which lays down policy for
all sectors covered under the health
portfolio. It meets once a year and consists
of the federal health ministers, state health
ministers, eminent health experts, NGOs
with an interest in health, and officials of
the central and state governments.
The Council in its last meeting held in
1999, inter alia, recommended that at
Traditional medicine can play
a role in the health system
of a country if the system
and its medicaments have
been prepared in a manner
that inspires confidence
in the quality.
143