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Experts say western countries’ restrictions on Ashwagandha politically and financially motivated
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Peethaambaran Kunnathoor, Chennai
December 19 , 2024
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The Ayurveda experts who attended the recently concluded World Ayurveda Congress in Dehradun observed that the western countries’ restrictions on Ashwagandha, the best known herb across the world and widely prescribed Ayurveda medicine in India, was politically and financially motivated.
Criticizing the ban put on it by Denmark, they said the study in that country has violated all the norms for conducting such research as the results were neither published, nor peer reviewed or critically analyzed. Further, the dozes used for the study were several times higher than the amount prescribed by the doctors in India.
Ashwagandha root has medicinal properties but its leaves are toxic and since the western study was based on the leafy product, the research result is irrelevant for the use of the medicine, they opined.
Further, they said, it is ridiculous to ban Ashwagandha on the basis of the so-called study conducted on food supplements that contained the herb’s leaves. The study did not even document the extent of the side effect on the thyroid gland or other organs. “Any medicine, be it Ayurvedic or of other systems, would have side effects if taken far in excess of the prescribed limit and even water can pose serious health problems if consumed in dozens of litres a day”, they explained.
Talking in the seminar on ‘The Ashwagandha Saga-Safety, Science and Evidence’, experts pointed out that only the root of the herb is used for producing medicines in India, but companies in the western countries are importing the leaf extracts of the plant for making and selling food supplements claiming that these improved stamina and vitality. All the experts were unanimous that Ashwagandha medicine has been found to be safe for over thousands of years and this has been confirmed by hundreds of published research papers.
The speakers appealed to all the stakeholders, including the government and herbal medicine manufacturers, to take concerted steps to convert this adverse situation into an opportunity to promote the use of Ashwagandha, the demand for which has grown exponentially in the recent past, particularly after Covid-19 as it was quite successful in the treatment of the pandemic.
While Denmark has banned the use of Ashwagandha, several other European countries and the United States have clamped a lot of restrictions, including mandatory labelling disclosing some of the so-called serious side effects. Denmark banned Ashwagandha in response to a report from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) that raised safety concerns. Following this, Sweden and Finland are also considering banning Ashwagandha as a supplement ingredient, the experts said.
The major speakers were Prof Vinod Diwan from Karolinska University of Sweden, Prof Anupama K from Southern California University of the United States, Dr Jorge Luis Berra, director of the post graduate courses in Ayurveda medicine at Argentina Medical Association, and Dr Bhushan Patwardhan, national professor with the Ministry of Ayush. Other experts who shared these assessments were Prof J B Gupta from the World Ashwagandha Council, India, and Stina Andersson from Swedish Association of Ayurveda.
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TOPICS
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