The Indian government, according to a news report, has effectively licensed a large volume of natural remedies based on medicinal plants and traditional systems as “public property” to ward-off bio-prospecting and patenting of traditional remedies.

Bio-prospecting, as the name implies, is a form of ‘prospecting’. A bio-prospector looks for something of value in biological material. Broadly, bio-prospecting is the search for and gathering of biological material that will then be examined for features of potential value. The biological material collected is analyzed of its material properties or its molecular, biochemical or genetic content for the purpose of developing a commercial product.

The licensing of local treatments as public property found its way when an alarming trend of issuing of patents for medical plants and traditional systems was found after trawling through the records of global patent offices. This trend is expected to fall as European Patent Office will now be using the ‘Traditional Knowledge Digital Library’ to check against bio-prospectors. The news report further dwelling on the recourses taken earlier to revoke patents which had elements of medicinal plants and Indian traditional systems, quotes an eminent personality who spearheaded the task of preparation of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, emphasizing that that the existence of the traditional knowledge digital library will now dissuade the foreign patent authorities from granting patents and at the same time lift already granted patents involving traditional knowledge.

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library is in form of a database detailing the traditional remedies in an encyclopedic manner. The department overseeing the traditional medicine industry known as AYUSH has been instrumental in compiling the database by meticulously translating the ancient Indian texts on medicinal plants and traditional systems.

The news report in addition mentions that there are seven national medical systems of which modern medicine is but one. Almost four-fifth of India’s billion people use traditional medicine and there are 430,000 Ayurvedic medical practitioners registered by the government in the country.

India is a biodiversity hotspot and the initiative in the form of coming up with a Traditional knowledge Digital Library to protect its traditional knowledge, perhaps is to embark the Indian research and development on to the road to take up the rich biodiversity as a potential treasure trove of starting material for new drugs and crops. It is generally believed that an isolated active ingredient from a natural remedy would just need drug trials and the marketing. Thus traditional medicine could herald a new age of cheap drugs.

A few medicines ancient and modern as given in the news report by way of example are below -

Ginger: Patented to treat obesity. However, officials have found that in a Siddha preparation, extracts of ginger root are used in a treatment for obesity

Citrus peel extract: Patented to treat skin disorders and injuries. Recorded in Ayurvedic texts as a key ingredient to treat skin diseases

Phyllanthus amarus (Himalayan stem herb): Patented "for the inhibition of the replication of a nucleosidic inhibitor resistant retrovirus and/or a non-nucleosidic inhibitor-resistant retrovirus, wherein said retrovirus is an HIV." Indian traditional texts show the drug is used for immuno-suppressive emaciating diseases

Brassica rapa (mustard): Patented to normalise bowel function or for the prevention of colonic cancer. Unani has for years prescribed it for stomach ailments