By TCN News,
New Delhi: “There is a need to exploit the strengths and potentials of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) systems to control non-communicable diseases (NCDs),” Mr. Nilanjan Sanyal, Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of AYUSH said while inaugurating a two-day ‘National Seminar on the Role of Unani Medicine in Non-communicable Diseases’ organised by Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM), Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India at New Delhi today.
Mr. Sanyal informed that NCDs such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases were the leading global cause of mortality and illness. The AYUSH systems had great potentials to contribute in controlling the diseases and could establish their strengths at national and international levels.
Prof. S. Shakir Jamil, addressing the inaugural session, while on the dice are (from L-R ) Hakim Syed Khaleefathullah; Dr. G.N. Qazi, Mr. Nilanjan Sanyal, Mr. Anil Kumar Ganeriwala, Dr. Mrinalini Darswal and Dr. Khalid M. Siddiqui.
He stressed on increasing the pace and volume of validation studies of pharmacopoeial drugs as well as traditional techniques. He also stressed on commercialisation of patented and efficacious drugs.
Mr. Sanyal further said that the Government of India was focusing on all-round growth of AYUSH systems and the Department of AYUSH had been accorded the status of a Ministry. The Government had also launched a National AYUSH Mission in order to promote these systems by providing cost-effective health services, strengthening educational systems, facilitating the enforcement of quality control and sustainable availability of drugs, he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. G.N. Qazi, Vice Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi said that pace of scientific validation of Unani Medicine should be expedited and volume of research in the system be increased. He urged the researchers of Unani Medicine to scientifically validate various strengths of their system and essential drugs used therein to control NCDs.
Dignitaries releasing one of the publications of CCRUM
Dr. Mrinalini Darswal (IAS), Special Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of NCT of Delhi said that the researchers of AYUSH systems should re-verify the various concepts and treatments described in these systems and take the responsibility of advancing their systems through quality research.
Hakim Syed Khaleefathullah, an eminent Unani physician and Vice-President (Technical) of Governing Body of the CCRUM, said that Unani system of medicine had a lot of time-tested and efficacious regimens for the successful treatment of a number of NCDs.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Prof. S. Shakir Jamil, Director General, CCRUM said that during the last three and a half decades, the Council had achieved some important landmarks in its various research programmes and emerged as the leading research institution of Unani Medicine. Under its clinical research programme, the Council conducted studies on 30 diseases including NCDs with special emphasis on the diseases of national health priorities. He added that the Council developed safe and cost-effective Unani treatment for vitiligo, eczema, psoriasis, scabies, bronchial asthma, chronic sinusitis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, infective hepatitis, malaria and filariasis in addition to other diseases. He informed that the Council obtained eight patents and filed another 46 provisional patent applications.
He further said that the Council recently adopted Intramural Research (IMR) policy to expedite research activities. The Council entered in to Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and research collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Researh (ICMR), New Delhi; National Institute of Research on Tuberculosis (NIRT), Chennai; Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICPO), Noida; National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune; Regional Medical Research Centre (ICMR), Port Blair; National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad; National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Hyderabad; and Faculty of Unani Medicine, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, he added.
A section of audience at the inaugural session of seminar
On infrastructure development front, Prof. Jamil informed that the Council constructed new buildings for its Central Research Institute of Unani Medicine (CRIUM), Lucknow and Regional Research Institutes of Unani Medicine (RRIUMs), Bhadrak and Patna, and started construction of a building for Regional Research Centre, Silchar. The Council also installed state-of-the-art research facilities at CRIUM, Hyderabad and RRIUM, Srinagar.
Five important publications of the Council were also released on the occasion. At the end, Dr. Khalid M. Siddiqui, Deputy Director General, CCRUM presented vote of thanks to the guests and the participants.