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India Digitizes Age-Old Wisdom
Even in such major cities as New Delhi, which boasts several world-class medical facilities, ayurveda is widely embraced. Pharmacies stock ayurvedic remedies alongside antibiotics and other conventional treatments. Bollywood stars hawk ayurvedic medicines from billboards. And a generation of middle-class children has grown up on morning spoonfuls of Chyvanprasam, a jam-like ayurvedic supplement.
"Ayurvedic medicine has no side effects," said Sheema Rajesh, a 31-year-old soldier's wife from southern India who was seeking treatment for jaundice the other day at an ayurvedic clinic in the capital. "It's made from natural things, and from the time we were small, we've been taking these medicines, so we believe in them."
  Patients received siddha medicine, based on the teachings of a Hindu god, at a hospital in Madras in 2002. (By M. Lakshman -- Associated Press) |
A politician's charge last week that a line of ayurvedic cures peddled by one of India's most popular television gurus had been adulterated with human bone made the front pages of Indian newspapers -- and sparked an attack by the guru's followers on the politician's Communist Party office in New Delhi.
Besides ayurvedic medicine, the database also is recording remedies from unani, a system that was introduced to the subcontinent 4,000 years ago by the Greeks. Unani is based on the theory that sickness is caused by an imbalance in "the four humors" -- black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm -- that define human temperament, according to Anjum, the unani doctor who was entering the data on the aamla fruit.
The system relies heavily on herbs and is "very effective," she said.
Siddha, which was first practiced in southern India by followers of Lord Shiva, employs medicines made from herbs, animal parts, metals and minerals. "Even though it is coming from supernatural power, so much is scientifically proved," said Muthu Kumar, a Siddha expert who is working for the database project.
Gupta, the project director, said the need for the database became apparent in 1995, when two Indian-born scientists in Mississippi were granted a U.S. patent on the use of tumeric, a common spice, to heal wounds. The move sparked protests from the Indian government, which cited ancient Sanskrit texts describing the use of tumeric for the same purpose. The patent was revoked.
To create the database, Gupta's team since 2001 has been poring over ancient texts in Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian and Arabic in search of traditional formulas. Working in drab cubicles and enduring frequent power cuts, the specialists enter the formulas in alphanumeric code, which is then translated automatically into English, Japanese, French, German and Spanish.
Sometime this year, the complete library will be made available to foreign patent offices on a secure Web site. Indian officials hope the patent offices will use the database in evaluating whether to grant patents on natural remedies.
"This traditional knowledge has been validated in the laboratory of life," Gupta said, with the zeal of a true believer. "It has been nurtured and grown in India for 4,000 years."
