An International Conference on challenges for global competitiveness of Aayush and natural products was organized successfully at Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University (DPSRU). The conference was organized jointly by International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicines (IASTAM) and DPSRU. Participants from various units of AYUSH and Ayurvedic colleges along with Faculty of Pharmacy colleges participated in the conference.
DPSRU is the first of its kind Pharmacy University of India. It boasts of various unique courses like Sports Pharmacy, Physiotherapy and yoga. The university also offers Management courses in Business administration, Public Health, Hospital administration. IASTAM is the world’s foremost community of scholars and practitioners devoted to understanding the history and contemporary practice of Asian medicines in their various forms. IASTAM is only organization working for Asian medicine for development of AYUSH for the last 38 years.
The three-day conference was inaugurated by Hon’ble Lt. Governor Shri Anil Baijal. While delivering the inaugural address Hon’ble Lt. Governor Shri. Anil Baijal emphasized on the role of herbal products as traditional medicines, global market of herbal products and potential of Asian medicine in economic development of country. He also mentioned that our country should establish the sustainable market for herbal product.
He emphasized the knowledge of the traditional medicine should be protected with Intellectual property right. He advised for the collaboration of the Universities with the “Biodiversity Park” for the exploring the further research and innovation in natural heritage. He also mentioned that Indian system of medicine has unique distinction of having six recognized systems which are Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Yoga, Naturopathy and Homeopathy which provides a platform to take initiative to bring together the Asian medicine to develop a roadmap for mutual benefits and complementary outcomes. He expressed that Asian medicine has potential to contribute to the delivery of health and medical services in the world over. Hon’ble Lt. Governor emphasized on need to encourage engagement of the University in terms of research with Asian medicines as “living traditions” and to promote its relevance to the contemporary world. He was of the view that it is essential to develop ‘Centre of Excellence’ for AYUSH integrating different disciplines of pharmaceutical sciences with traditional systems of medicine leading to globally acceptable safe, affordable and quality products for the benefit of the people.
Dr. Narendra Bhatt, President, IASTAM in his address highlighted the activities of IASTAM and the role played by the organization in research and development of the herbal medicinal system. He also felicitated and honoured awardees by IASTAM Oration Awards, IASTAM-BVU Awards and IASTAM Baidyanath Awards for their excellent work in the field of traditional Asian medicinal system.
Prof. R.K. Goyal, Vice Chancellor, DPSRU mentioned that the conference is being attended by over 650 delegates and more than 300 abstracts were received for oral as well as for poster presentations. He stated that the objective of the conference was to overcome boundaries, whether they are geographical or subject disciplines, ancient versus modern science and to deliberate on challenges faced in India for the promotion of traditional medicine practice. Dr. Goyal pointed out that a special session of conference was deliberated on the formation of syllabus in Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathic pharmacy to raise the standards of the products from traditional medicines.
Prof. V.M. Katoch, Secretary, Former Director General, ICMR and Guest of Honour on the occasion enlightened the gathering about the role of herbal medicine in human health care system and recent innovations and trends in herbal product development. He also emphasized on standardization of treatment methods along with importance of role pf quality assurance, pharmacogenomics in integrated medicine.
On the second day of the conference many stalwarts shared their valuable views with the participants. The program started with the honoring of IASTAM oration awardees Mr. Mark Rosenberg, European Academy of Ayurveda – REAA, Birstein, Germany, Prof. (Dr.) Larry Walker, University of Mississippi, USA and Dr. Ram Vishwakarma ,Director CSIR- IIIM, Jammu, India.
Dr. Ikhlas Khan, National Center for Natural Products Research, USA, while delivering his talk mentioned that the use of herbal medicine has expanded globally and gained popularity, but the safety and efficacy as well as quality control of herbal medicines are matters of concern for both health authorities and the public. He also expressed the concern that Herbal product studies cannot be considered scientifically valid if the product tested was not authenticated and characterized and hence chemical standardization of starting material is very important. He also mentioned that “omics” technologies are promising new avenues for improving the discovery from this rich and vast reservoir of plant drugs.
Dr. Karan Vasisht, University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Panjab University, Chandigarh, delivered talk on Applications of Modern techniques in herbal analysis. He emphasized that ensuring efficacy, safety and batch uniformity of raw material is of prime importance. Different modern methods, encompassing advanced chromatographic procedures, fingerprint analysis, the concept of QbD, application of modern data analysing software can be adopted to provide solution to the plant drug industry. Dr. Kishor Patwardhan, Faculty of Ayurveda, BHU, Varanasi suggestedpolicy interventions in the matters related to Ayurveda drug safety.
There was a thought provoking session about opportunities with traditional medicines in which, Prof. (Dr) Shridhar Dwivedi, Senior Consultant Cardiologist, National Heart Institute, New Delhi delivered a talk on Holistic Approach to Prevent Current Pandemic of Non Communicable Diseases. He stated that it is entirely possible to prevent the further surge of these illnesses by integrating our rich heritage of yoga, Ayurveda with modern scientific recommendations of American Heart Association, European Heart Society on prevention of various heart diseases.
Dr. Narendra Bhatt, President, IASTAM, India., and Consultant - Research & Industry, CRIA Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, propagated the need for combining modern day equipment and technologies with the therapeutic principles inherent in classical dosage forms to develop effective therapeutics of natural origin.
Dr. D.B.A Narayana Former Director, Regulatory Affairs, Foods & HPC, Unilever Research, Bangalore expressed that well formulated and stable botanical products with adequate quality specifications holds the key for future delivery of health care. Dr. Jai Prakash Senior Principal Scientific Officer, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ghaziabad., threw light on role of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission in ensuring quality of herbal drugs while DR. Arun Gupta, Head – Medical Affairs & Clinical Research, Dabur R & D Centre presented a regulatory overview of the herbal drug development.
Prof Anand Chaudhary, Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences , Banaras Hindu University and Prof. Kanchan Kohli, Head and Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard highlighted role on nanomedicine in delivery of Ayurvedic and herbal formulations respectively.
Prof. R. C. Deka, erstwhile Director of AIIMS, delivered Valedictory address and appreciated the efforts of DPSRU and IASTAM for bringing together best brains in the country for deliberating on AYUSH and natural products. He opined that Universities are cradle of the scientific research and called upon University faculty to take up research in earnest. On this occasion, Guest of Honour, Dr. Markanday Ahuja, Vice Chancellor, Baba Masthnath University congratulated the participants on the successful completion of the conference and encouraged them to use the knowledge acquired to bring positive changes to their society and nation. This was the culmination of 3 days conference, in which about 300 researchers presented their view on various aspects ranging traditional medicine. The awards for “Best oral and poster presentations” were distributed by Chief Guest. Dr Mahaveer Dhobi, Organizing secretary, summarized the proceedings and outcomes of the conference. Dr Raman Dang, Registrar, DPSRU presented vote of thanks.