Ayurvedic medicines helped to improve immunity of people during Corona pandemic-Minister said in LS

Ayurvedic products helped to improve the immunity of people during the Corona pandemic

DATE: 23 JUL 2021

The Ministry of AYUSH has developed and launched the AYUSH Sanjivani mobile application to generate data on the acceptance and usage of Ayush advocacies and measures among the population and its impact in the prevention of COVID-19. A cross-sectional analysis of the responses received from approximately 1.47 crore respondents through this App,  highlighted that 85.1% of the respondents reported use of AYUSH measures for prevention of COVID-19, among which 89.8% respondents agreed to have been benefited from the practice of AYUSH advisory.  79.1% of the users responded that the AYUSH measures gave an overall feeling of good health.   63.4% reported improvement in parameters of well being like sleep, appetite, bowel habits, stamina and mental well being.

Ministry of AYUSH has prepared a draft scheme namely “Pradhan Mantri VRIKSHA AYUSH Yojna” for promotion of Herbal Cultivation to increase the production of medicinal herbs used in Ayurvedic drugs in near future, which is yet to be approved.

Again the Ministry of AYUSH has formed an Inter-disciplinary AYUSH R&D Task Force having representation from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and AYUSH Institutions. The Inter-disciplinary AYUSH R&D Task Force has formulated and designed clinical research protocols for prophylactic studies and add-on interventions in COVID-19 positive cases through thorough review and consultative process of high repute experts from different organizations across the country for studying four different interventions viz. Ashwagandha, Yashtimadhu, Guduchi + Pippali and a poly herbal formulation (AYUSH-64). Under various research organizations and National Research Institutes 126 studies are going on in 152 centers in the country to identify effective medicine for to cure patients with symptoms of COVID-19.

Government of India has released “National Clinical Management Protocol based on Ayurveda and Yoga for management of COVID-19” prepared by National Task Force in consensus from various expert committees. Apart from this various guidelines and advisories have been issued for management of Covid-19 by Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy Practitioners respectively.

Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) has undertaken four collaborative research studies in COVID-19 in which the Ayurvedic formulations have been administered as add on to conventional standard care. Further four collaborative studies have Ayurvedic formulations as standalone treatment out of which two studies have conventional standard care as control arm and remaining two studies are standalone Ayurveda intervention.

This information was given by Minister of State for Ayush Shri Mahendrabhai Munjapara in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.