Our country has rich tradition of indigenous medicines and medical practices. One of the four Vedas, namely Atharva Veda, is entirely dealing with medicines, medicinal herbs and Medicare. Ayurveda literally meaning the science of life is well known all over India. With the advent of foreigners, Unani medicinal practices were also inducted into our existing system and the Unani medicine remained in use for a considerable period of time. After independence, attention began to be paid to traditional medicine and institutions were created for research and development. The institution of Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) structured as a department is charged with the duty of researching and developing indigenous Indian medicines based on the above mentioned strands. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan has rightly suggested that there should be integration of traditional medicine with public health programme through legal and policy initiatives. There is still large scope of research in traditional medical practices. For example Yoga, a component of AYUSH, has become popular all over the world and Yoga Centres have been opened in Western and Far Eastern countries. It will be a matter of great satisfaction if the researches made in traditional Indian medical science theories and also in medicinal herbs that are grown in Indian forests are standardized and effective medicines are discovered for world wide marketing. We are capable of doing that provided there are proper incentives and encouragement. Protection of medicinal herbs and plants is of utmost importance. There is great scope for discovery of effective medicinal herbs in the Himalayan and other forests. Much work remains to be done in this area.
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