Legal victory of turmeric patenting

India's successful challenging of a U.S. patent (No. 5,401,504) on the use of turmeric (Curcuma longa L., Zingiberaceae) for healing has been an encouraging victory for Indian activists campaigning to protect indigenous wisdom.

After a complex legal battle, the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office ruled on Aug. 14 that a patent for turmeric issued to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in December 1993 was invalid because it was not a novel invention.

The patent was contested by India's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which combined scientific evidence with legal savvy to take on the biopirates. Says an excited R. A. Mashelkar, director-general of the CSIR, "This success will enhance the confidence of the people and help remove fears about India's helplessness on preventing bio-piracy and appropriation of inventions based on traditional knowledge."

The turmeric patent was just one of the hundreds that the North has claimed by ignoring indigenous and existing knowledge. Vandana Shiva, a global campaigner for a fair and honest Intellectual Property Rights system, says patents on Neem, Amla, Jar Amla, Anar, Salai, Dudhi, Gulmendhi, Bagbherenda, Karela, Erand, Rangoon-kibel, Vilayetishisham and Chamkura need to be revoked.

This can be done if laws are changed to ensure protection against bio-piracy, activists say, because "chasing every patent based on traditional knowledge will involve huge expenses and efforts," according to farm scientist Devinder Sharma.

Under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, patents are provided for inventions that qualify for their novelty, non-obviousness, and utility. The turmeric patent failed to satisfy the criteria of novelty as turmeric paste has been used to treat wounds and stomach infections for centuries by Indians.

It is the WTO which has to protect indigenous knowledge, argues Sharma, who says, "governments of developing countries cannot chase and challenge every indigenous knowledge-based product patent. Patent laws need to be changed, the onus of proof reversed and companies should give an undertaking that the patent they are seeking is not based on traditional wisdom."

Suman Sahai of the New Delhi-based Gene Campaign would like the government to use the turmeric case to "press the North to reform its own laws governing intellectual property rights, instead of pressuring the South to change its laws."

Vandana Shiva points out that "examples of bio-piracy make it clear that it is not just Indian patent laws that need to be changed. The American laws also need to be changed to fit into a fair and honest global Intellectual Property Rights system."

Milk: Healthy or Unhealthy

From childhood, we are taught that milk is healthy and that we need to consume dairy products for the calcium intake. But today, even doctors say cow's milk can lead to iron deficiency anaemia, allergies, diarrhoea, heart disease, colic, cramps, gastrointestinal bleeding, sinusitis, skin rashes, acne, increased frequency of colds and flu, arthritis, diabetes, ear infections, osteoporosis, asthma and autoimmune diseases.

These are some finding of studies:

• Milk is also a cause of malabsorption disorders (2), may be a cause of juvenile diabetes (3), and may promote prostate and testicular cancer (4).

• Preliminary findings indicate that insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in children is associated with an intake of cow's milk prior to weaning. An autoimmune mechanism has been used to explained how cow's milk causes the body to produce antibodies. These antibodies attack the pancreatic cells that make insulin. Research continues to clarify these relationships and the role of genes in triggering this auto-immune response (5).

• Milk and milk products gave the highest correlation coefficient to heart disease, while sugar, animal proteins and animal fats came in second, third,and fourth, respectively (6).

• Milk and many components of milk (butterfat, milk protein, calcium from milk, and riboflavin)… were positively related to coronary heart disease mortality for all 40 countries studied (7).

Indian herbs investigated

Hundreds of herbs used for centuries by traditional healers in India could soon be on western pharmacy shelves.

The Indian Council of Medical Research has launched a series of studies to test the health claims surrounding a variety traditional medicines.

Clinical trials have shown that herbal remedies for asthma, diabetes and even sexually transmitted diseases may be effective.

The council is looking at treatments for a range of other conditions used for over a thousand years by practitioners of Ayurveda and Siddha medicine.

More effective

Professor Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, a member of the council, said that in some cases the herbs may be more effective than Western-style medicines.

"We have plants for bronchial asthma, hepatitis and arthritis," he said.

"We have other plants which have been shown to be effective for treating sexually transmitted diseases and they have been used in that way by tribal populations for centuries.

"We have herbs where you can relieve headache, fever, gastroenteritis, sneezing and coughing.

"These conditions can easily be alleviated."

Pharmaceutical companies have already expressed an interest in developing some of these remedies commercially for sale in the West.

Under some existing schemes, a percentage of the company's profits is given to a local village.

Professor Chaudhury acknowledged that in some cases the council will be unable to prove that the herbs work.

This is because many of the remedies are based on a combination of plants which taken on their own would not be effective.

"There are hundreds of herbs but we are unable at the moment to do very good testing for combinations of plants.

"In the Ayurvedic system they use usually combinations. But testing combinations with modern technology is difficult."

Common standards

The herbal remedies would have to be produced to a common standard before they could ever hope to make pharmacy shelves.

Professor Chaudhury said: "There are many herbs that are very effective and I wouldn't hesitate to prescribe them or even take them but only if I am sure it has been standardised."

Millions of people living across India use traditional medicine. In some rural areas, between 60% and 70% seek help from Ayurveda and Siddha practitioners.

"If this was taken away our health services would collapse," said Professor Chaudhury.

However, he added that the tradition is losing out to western-style medicine.

"There are vast areas of India where there is no healthcare and people look after themselves with their tradition, their folklore, their tribal systems and their inherent knowledge of plants.

"They use this but a lot of this is being lost because the knowledge goes when the folk healer dies."

Professor Chaudhury said the council hoped to continue to collect information on the traditional herbs and to identify those which can be scientifically proven to work.

This story was done by BBC.