GREEN PHARMACY: AN ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE

The people in India have an outstanding knowledge of medicinal plants acquired over centuries. A passion for studying medicinal plants is evident both in folk and scholarly traditions. The indigenous mode of understanding and using plants is different from the modern scientific way. It includes botanical, medical and astrological elements. This is the basis of green pharmacy. Indians obviously care for medicinal plants because they know so many of them, so much about them and have worked extensively on their application. It is a remarkable fact that the use of medicinal plants is still a living tradition in the form of a million village-based folk carriers. These traditional birth attendants, bonesetters, herbal healers and wandering monks are invisible to policy makers and therefore not taken into account as a public health resource. Apart from these specialised folk healers there are also millions of women and elders with traditional knowledge of food and nutrition and herbal home-remedies. However, the revitalisation of this vast and diverse folk tradition does not appear on the Governments agenda. Here is an attempt to introduce these traditional knowledge with an emphasis of Nevadensin that holds a promising substance to cure many of the diseases naturally.