Times of India
22 February 2011
Pune, India

The country is losing its plant wealth as 60 per cent of the medicinal formulations are based on roots that have strong antibiotic properties. So we are actually killing the plant by uprooting it for making drugs, said Anand Karve, winner of Ashden Award for Renewable Energy and founder of NGO Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI).

"In fact, we can trace the active ingredients not just in roots but also in leaves. So we do not have to uproot the entire plant," said Karve while addressing the mediapersons as part of the 5{+t}{+h} Vasundhara International Film Festival in the city recently.

Karve pointed out that the lack of facilitating regulations for Indian medicinal products in other most countries has caused a major hindrance for the growth of this sector. Ayurvedic drug cannot be sold as medicines in other countries. "There can also be no collaboration with foreign countries until and unless you get sanction from government, Karve said.

"We have been using aryuvedic drugs for more than 2,000 years. Yet, no clinical trials are conducted here, nor are ayurvedic medicines analysed before use. There is an absence of adequate scientific documentation in this sector,'' he said.

Citing the need to review ancient laws of the country, Karve said, "If you are growing sandalwood tree in your compound, the government only need to harvest it. Earlier, India would export sandalwood and sandal oil. Now, because of the drastic decline in sandalwood trees, we are importing sandalwood."

Karve also lamented the heavy use of chemical pesticides in farming. "Each plant species has its own enemy species (insects). Extract of any plant will act as insecticides and can be used and sprayed on other plants. It will not be potent as DDT, but it will be milder.It is a natural substitute. It has to be sprayed every 4–5 days.'' he said.

Karve, who has developed ways for harnessing agri–waste into fuel, said ARTI has developed a compact biogas plant, which uses waste food rather than dung or manure as feedstock, to supply biogas for cooking. The conventional biogas systems, which use cattle dung and sewerage, use about 40 kg feedstock to produce the same quantity of methane. The reaction takes about 40 days to complete. However, the compact biogas system uses starchy or sugary feedstock (waste grain flour, spoilt grain, overripe fruit, non–edible seeds, leaves, fruits and kitchen waste). Just 2 kg feedstock can produce about 500 gm of methane in just 24 hours, he said.