Ministry denies report claiming toxic Ayurvedic medicine

NI Wire

New Delhi

Thu, 04 Sep 2008: 

Responding to the article, published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), pointing finger to the pernicious effect of the metallic substances present in Ayurvedic medicines, the Ministry of Health on Wednesday quashed the entire report terming “flawed and biased.”

Department of urveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) under the Health Ministry stated: “The reports regarding Heavy Metals in Ayurvedic herbal medicinal products containing potentially harmful levels of lead, mercury and/or arsenic are flawed and disclose a strong bias against Ayurvedic medicines.

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The ministry also said that after the report published on August 27, samples of 600 Indian medicinal plants accumulated from the wild as well as various medicinal plant gardens in India were tested in three top laboratories - Indian Institute of Toxicological Research, Lucknow, Sri Ram Institute of Industrial Toxicology, New Delhi, and Centre for Research in Indian Medicine, Shastra University, Thanjavur.

The thorough testing revealed that Lead, Mercury and Arsenic present in these Indian medicinal plants did not have crossed the limits outlined by the World Health Organisation, the ministry said.

Robert B. Saper of the Department of Family Medicine, Boston Medical Center and his associates, in their article “Lead, Mercury and Arsenic in US- and Indian-Manufactured Ayurvedic Medicines sold via the Internet” published in JAMA, Aug 27 had indicated excessive amount of metals in Ayurvedic products.

The Health Ministry dubbed the fresh report is just a rehash of the earlier article written by the same author published in the JAMA journal on December 15, 2004.

The Health Ministry asserted that issues raised by Dr. Saper, howsoever flawed, will be responded to by Indian Scientists on the basis of their research on Ayurveda herbal and herbo-metallic medicines through research publications in due course.