19-May-2022: Ministry of Ayush to organise two-day workshop on Sowa Rigpa
The National Institute of Sowa-Rigpa, Leh, under Ministry of Ayush in collaboration with Namgyal Institute of Tibetology (NIT), Sikkim is organizing a two days National workshop on Sowa-Rigpa for the Sowa-Rigpa practitioners from North Eastern States on 20th & 21st May 2022.
The workshop will be formally inaugurated on 21st May 2022 at Manan Kendra, Gangtok in the august presence of Chief Guest Shri, Ganga Prasad, Governor of Sikkim, Guest of Honor, Shri Prem Sing Tamang, Chief Minister of Sikkim and Shri, Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of AYUSH & Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Special Guest, Dr Munjapara Mahendrabhai Kalubhai, MoS for Ayush & WCD and Shri M.K Sharma Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of Sikkim.
This is for the first time that such an event is being held in Gangtok where Union Minister and MoS AYUSH along with senior officers from the Ministry of AYUSH are attending the event which will not only help in the process for the preservation and promotion of Sowa-Rigpa system of medicine in North Eastern states but also provide a platform to scholars, practitioners, researchers and students from various institutions to carry forward the legacy of this great medical system for standardization. This workshop will be attended by traditional Sowa-Rigpa practitioners from North Eastern States as well as from all over India.
The Sowa-Rigpa, system of medicine is one of the oldest surviving and well-documented medical traditions of the world with history of more than 2500 years. It is also popularly known as Amchi and popularly practiced in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Darjeeling.
6-Mar-2020: Ayurvedic Classification of Diseases
The Ministry of AYUSH has developed National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes (NAMC), a comprehensive classification of diseases described in Ayurveda as well as Standardized Ayurveda Terminologies. These have been made available on National AYUSH Morbidity and Standardized Terminologies Electronic Portal (NAMASTE Portal) developed by the Ministry which is available to the public on the URL http://namstp.ayush.gov.in.
For standardization of Ayurvedic diagnostic and treatment protocol, the Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) under Ministry of AYUSH has undertaken a project on Reliability testing and Validation of Ayurveda diagnostic methods in June 2018. Under this project, some common disease condition have been identified and accordingly the Proforma and manual of selected disease conditions is being drafted and validated through scientific methods in phased manner.
In the first phase, the disease conditions which have been identified one Kushtha (skin diseases), Kasa, Shwasa and Jwara. The first draft of Kushtha (skin diseases) manual as clinical series-I has been published and for other three disease conditions inter-rator reliability has already been completed and second phase validity is under pipeline in collaboration with the academic institutes of national repute. Further, the development of proforma of various other disease conditions has been initiated.
Various clinical studies are also being conducted following the integrated protocol in a scientific manner. The brief of clinical studies has been published as glimpses of clinical Research which is available on the Council’s website (www.ccras.nic.in).
23-Jun-2019: Scientists decode genome of ‘miracle plant’
Scientists from the University of Kerala have decoded the genetic make-up of Arogyapacha ( Trichopus zeylanicus ), a highly potent medicinal plant endemic to the Agastya hills.
This ‘miracle plant’ is known for its traditional use by the Kani tribal community to combat fatigue. Studies have also proved its varied spectrum of pharmacological properties such as anti-oxidant, aphrodisiac, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, anti-tumour, anti-ulcer, anti-hyperlipidemic, hepatoprotective and anti-diabetic.
The project was undertaken in the State Inter University Centre of Excellence in Bioinformatics at the Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Kerala.
The lack of a reference genome that hindered extensive research on Arogyapacha prompted the researchers to sequence the whole genome.
The genome and annotation data will be a valuable resource to expedite research on Arogyapacha, particularly its secondary metabolism, genetic breeding, and comparative studies.