HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Oct 9: The Central Ayurveda Research Institute (CARI), a pioneering research institute with an NABH hospital on Ayurveda and NABL lab from Northeast India under the Ministry of Ayush, organised a press conference on Wednesday to highlight the achievements in the Ayush sector in the first 100 days of the new union government. The press conference was addressed by Dr Sashi Sonowal, joint director, Directorate of Ayush, government of Assam; Dr Pranabjyoti Baishya, principal, government Ayurvedic College, Guwahati, along with Dr Dinesh Baruah, director, CARI, and Dr PL Bharti of the Clinical department.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Dinesh Baruah, director of the Central Ayurveda Research Institute (CARI), said, “The Ministry of Ayush has been focusing on overall improvement in quality patient care with multiple programs as well as campaigns. In the first 100 days of the new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ministry organised more than 14,000 health camps catering to geriatric patient care. With continuous support from Union minister of state (independent charge) for Ayush, Pratap Rao Jadhav, our ministry continues to reinforce its commitment to enhance the quality of life through Ayurveda, contributing towards enriching the Ayush ecosystem. At our CARI center in Guwahati, we have also been focusing on improving and upgrading quality patient care with newer facilities like Northeast’s first dedicated Panchakarma block, inaugurated earlier this year by the then Union Ayush minister Sarbananda Sonowal. It has witnessed tremendous response from people, with more than 4,500 patients receiving therapeutic treatment in the first 100 days at the Panchakarma block. The center also boasts the region’s first Pharmacology & Chemistry Laboratory, which was also dedicated to the nation earlier this year. Both centers were completed in a record time of two years since the foundation stones were laid in February 2022 by Sarbananda Sonowal.”
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“Apart from this, our programs like anaemia control among adolescent girls under Mission Utkarsh via Ayurvedic methods, the study on ‘Marsa Nasya Karma’ and Multi-Centre Feasibility in Cervical Spondylosis, Ayurvedic Mobile Healthcare Program, Tribal Healthcare Research Program, and Women & Child Healthcare Program are ongoing. All these outreach programs as well as IEC campaigns have helped the Ayush sector regain its foothold and win the trust of the public as a reliable source for treatment to improve the quality of life. The increasing number of patients being treated at CARI reflects newfound confidence among people about the efficacy and utility of the Ayush system of medicine,” added Dr Baruah.
CARI has established healthcare centers in various districts, including PHC Barighat, Amranga in Kamrup; Nakhla Model Hospital in Jagiroad, Morigaon; Dhula MPHC in Darrang; Nasatra PHC in Barpeta; Kanaklata Civil Hospital in Sonitpur; Bikali Model Hospital in Dhupdhara, Goalpara; and a first referral center in Lumding, Hojai district. There were a total of 30,253 beneficiaries last year (2023-24). This year, the number of free health camp beneficiaries was 7,079 across 63 camps. In the last 100 days, the total number of beneficiaries in OPD and health camps was 2,910, and 19 health camps were organised by all seven centers.
All these camps are organised by the AHCs in the surrounding areas, which provide medicinal healthcare services to a large number of people. Speaking further, Dr Baruah said, “CARI is also conducting a Medico-Ethnobotanical Survey program throughout Northeast India. This first-of-its-kind survey will critically appraise and validate Local Health Traditions (LHTs), Oral Health Traditions (OHTs), and Ethno-Medicinal Practices (EMPs) among the ethnic communities of the region. Our team has interviewed more than 400 folk medicine healers, and claims have been documented accordingly. Another study on wild edible plants has been sanctioned, covering 12 districts of Assam: Kamrup (M), Kamrup, Bongaigaon, Nalbari, Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri, South Salmara, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri, and Bajali in the first phase this year. CARI also has a modern pathological laboratory offering a wide range of pathological and biochemical tests at nominal rates. This lab has received NABL accreditation, making it one of the few labs with top accreditation in the region. We conducted close to 50,000 tests last year, and in the last 100 days, our team at the lab conducted more than 19,325 tests, set to surpass last year’s performance.”
The dedicated Panchakarma block at CARI has been providing top Panchakarma therapies to people at reasonable rates. The researchers are also examining the role of Panchakarma in healing patients and enriching the quality of life. A Panchakarma Training Course is ongoing to train Panchakarma technicians, ensuring quality resources for the Ayush market. The building is equipped with dedicated rooms to perform key Panchakarma therapies like Snehana and Swedana, Shirodhara, Basti, and others. A medicine lab to prepare Panchakarma medicines like Kwath and Basti Dravya has been created, and there are dedicated classrooms to train Panchakarma technicians under the Panchakarma Technician Course. Various machines like the New Panchakarma Droni, Bashpa Swedana Yantra (steam chamber), Nadi Swedana Yantra, Sarvangadhara Yantra, Shirodhara Yantra, Basti Yantra, Nasya applicator, Avagaha tub, and sauna chamber are also being installed for effective Panchakarma treatment.
A first-of-its-kind Pharmacology and Chemistry Laboratory in the Ayush sector in the Northeast is equipped with facilities for drug standardisation, safety, and efficacy evaluation of Ayurvedic formulations. The labs will scientifically validate the therapeutic and safety potential of classical Ayurvedic formulations, ethno-medicinal plants, and plant-based formulations. They will further work to develop cost-effective, novel polyherbal formulations from Ayurvedic plants, especially found in the Northeast region. A modern animal house has been established to conduct pre-clinical studies for the safety and efficacy of Ayurvedic formulations, along with a state-of-the-art pharmacology lab equipped with sophisticated instruments like a rotary evaporator, Soxhlet extractor, automatic haematology analyzer, biochemistry analyzer, coagulation analyzer, analgesimeter, UV-VIS spectrophotometer, laboratory deep freezer, plethysmometer, and others. The chemistry lab works on drug standardisation of Ayurvedic formulations and ensures drug quality. Modern instruments include high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and others. Two research projects, in collaboration with the College of Veterinary Science, Guwahati, are being conducted on ‘Acute and Ninety-day Repeated Dose (Sub-chronic) Oral Toxicity Studies of Coded Formulation Ayush-PTK’ and ‘Evaluation of Neuroprotective and Antioxidant Effects of Vasantakusumakara Rasa in a Rat Model of Type II Diabetes Neuropathy’.
