CCRAS has developed anti-diabetic 'ayurvedic' drug: Govt

The Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has developed a new anti-diabetic drug whose trial has shown "significant" reduction in blood sugar levels, Lok Sabha was informed today.
"For the management of diabetes mellitus, the CCRAS has developed a formulation namely AYUSH-82 from five ayurvedic medicinal plants.
"The trails of the drug has shown significant reduction in blood sugar levels along with clinical improvements. No toxic effects were noted during the trial," AYUSH Minister Shripad Yesso Naik said in a written reply.
He said that the Council has initiated action to commercialise AYUSH-82 and till now Dabur India, Kudos Laboratory India and La Granade Herbs and Pharma have been given licenses for manufacturing it.

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has also found "novel" use of cow urine distillate as activity enhancer and availability facilitator, for bio-active molecules including anti-infective and anti-cancer agents, Naik said.
"CSIR has reported that its constituent laboratory namely Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (Lucknow) in a study undertaken in collaboration with Go-Vigyan Anusandhan Kendra in Nagpur have found novel use of cow urine distillate as activity enhancer and availability facilitatory for bio-active molecules including anti-infective and anti-cancer agents," Naik said.

He said that cow urine distillate was found to possess the property of bio-enhancement of an anti-cancer natural agent 'taxol' which is produced in microscopic amounts by the Yew tree.

He said cow urine distillate besides enhancing the killing activities of different antibiotics on bacteria could also enhance the cell division inhibitory activity of the paclitaxel drug against breast cancer line MCF-7.
"Further a white crystalline precipitate prepared from the cow urine distillate also showed similar activity as cow urine distillate. A US patent on the research finding has also been obtained.
"Public and Private research institutes may seek grant from the government under various schemes of Ministry of AYUSH. However there is no plan with the Ministry of AYUSH to extend separate assistance to the institutions engaged in developing cancer medicines from cow urine only," he added.