Dear E-druggers,
The Supreme Court of India's Judgment dated May 10, 1996 on a
case regarding prescription of allopathic (modern) drugs by a
Homeopathic Physician has stated that "a person studied in one
system of medicine cannot prescribe drugs of another system of
medicine. A person who does not have knowledge of a particular
system of medicine but practices in that system is a quack".
Accordingly a Homeopathic or Ayurvedic or Unani or Allopathic
(modern system of medicine) doctor should prescribe drugs only
from his system of medicine. An Ayurvedic doctor cannot
prescribe Allopathic medicine and an Allopathic doctor cannot
prescribe Ayurvedic medicine.
Subsequent to this judgment many allopathic doctors stopped
prescribing herbal drugs. Food and Drug Administration in
Maharashtra and Gujarat (India) issued a circular compelling
doctors to prescribe medicines in their own system of medicine
(The Hindu, 3 Feb. 1997).
Indian Council of Medical Research, the premier funding agency
for medical research in India, suspended funding clinical research in
herbal drugs. After the Supreme Court Judgement, research committees
in many medical colleges stopped giving permission for conducting
clinical research in herbal drugs to doctors of modern medicine.
What is the situation in other countries? Are doctors of
modern medicine allowed to do clinical research in herbal
drugs? If so, what are the guidelines followed?
Dr.C.Adithan,
Professor of Pharmacology,
JIPMER,
Pondicherry - 605 006.
India
E-mail: nagaraj@giasmda.vsnl.net.in
Fax: 413-72067
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