CURATIVE TRADITIONAL MEDS

Ayurveda and hela wedakama will buoy the healthcare sector – Janaka Perera

Sri Lanka’s healthcare sector is facing serious challenges that include a shortage of medicinal drugs in government hospitals, substandard and outdated pharmaceuticals, the high cost of medicines, and mass migration of medical professionals.

Globally too, the pharmaceutical industry is finding the drug delivery process extremely expensive, increasingly risky and critically inefficient. Consequently, there has been a remarkable shift in favour of single to multi-targeted drugs – especially for polygenic based diseases – through the use of traditional medicinal knowledge.

Therefore, it is important for Sri Lanka to pay greater attention to traditional medicine. India and China are doing so.

Evidence suggests that Ayurveda and hela wedakama (Sri Lanka’s indigenous medical system) are performing better than Western medicine especially in the case of chronic diseases. Ayurveda is a mixture of Indian and Arabic Unani medical knowledge, and hela wedakama. With its Hellenistic origins, Unani came to us courtesy of Persians and Arabs.

According to an article written by former paediatric surgeon at Lady Ridgeway Hospital Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha, many medicinal drugs originating in India were included in the British pharmacopeia.

Nature gifted both humans and animals with an instinctive knowledge of various medicinal plants – e.g. cats eating catnip to overcome indigestion.

Portuguese army officer Captain João Ribeiro – who served in Sri Lanka between 1641 and 1658 – wrote in his book titled Fatalidade Histórica da Ilha de Ceilão (The Historic Tragedy of Ceylon) about the amazing cures of hela wedakama: “As a rule, they are a healthy race… they are great herbalists and in case of wounds, tumours, broken arms and legs, they effect a cure in a few days with ease.”

“As for cancer, which is a loathsome and incurable disease among us, they can cure it in eight days, removing all viscosity from the scab without so much as leaving a mark anywhere to show that the disease had been there… In truth, the land is full of herbs and many antidotes to poison, which I myself tried to learn as a remedy against snake bites,” he recounted.

In fact, almost every Sri Lankan villager of that era was a physician to some degree.

It is essential to encourage interdisciplinary research if we’re to revive our ancient medical systems. The need is to involve all basic sciences such as physics, chemistry, molecular biology, and biotechnology – together with ethno-pharmacology, traditional drug discovery, reverse pharmacology and various other disciplines – to better understand traditional medical research.

In recent years, the interdisciplinary concept of research has also introduced Ayurveda, mainly for integrative medicine. Ayurveda recommends the use of a copper pot for water purification as copper has an antibacterial effect against ‘diarrheagenic’ bacteria.

The multidimensional approach of combining traditional and modern medicine is growing in the West. And the clinical efficacy of many traditional medications for a variety of diseases has been found to be better than that of modern medicine.

Traditional medicine is comparatively safe, and can help reduce the enormous burden of mortality and morbidity that results from the side effects of conventional prescribed drugs.

This system is also found to be effective against various diseases where pathogens have developed antibiotic resistance. Therefore, interdisciplinary research is needed to fight against most chronic diseases.

Herbal extracts of therapeutic relevance are of great importance as reservoirs of structural and chemical diversity. Interestingly, more than 120 distinct phytochemicals from different plants have the capacity to become lifesaving medicines.

These compounds have been achieved through chemical and pharmacological screening of only six percent of the plant species.

The National Institute of Health Sciences has already begun extensive research on the anti-inflammatory compounds in turmeric, ginger and Boswellia with the aid of Ayurvedic knowledge. And the screening of numerous herbs for treating cancer has been done using traditional knowledge.

Herbal gardens are a key factor in promoting Ayurveda. In Sri Lanka, traditional healing practices are deeply intertwined with the use of herbal medicine.

The origin of traditional herbal gardens can be traced back for centuries and are deeply rooted in the country’s rich history. Ancient Ayurvedic wisdom combined with indigenous knowledge has cultivated a unique approach to herbal medicine.

Currently, herbal gardens have been established under the Department of Ayurveda’s guidance in Haldummulla, Pattipola, Pallekele, Girandurukotte and on land belonging to the Ministry of Health.

A major challenge to the survival of these herbal gardens is continuing deforestation and loss of valuable herbal plants. It is the government’s duty to arrest this trend without further delay.