From Vassan Fri Apr 16 16:29:09 1999
Delivered-To: listsaver-of-agathiyar@egroups.com
Mailing-List: contact agathiyar-owner@egroups.com
X-Mailing-List: agathiyar@egroups.com
X-URL: http://www.egroups.com/list/agathiyar/
Reply-To: agathiyar@egroups.com
Delivered-To: listsaver-egroups-agathiyar@egroups.com
Received: (qmail 7968 invoked by uid 7770); 16 Apr 1999 23:29:05 -0000
Received: from mailer.cia-g.com (207.66.82.36) by vault.egroups.com with SMTP; 16 Apr 1999 23:29:05 -0000
Received: from cia-g.com (gup-071-dpm2.cia-g.com [207.66.82.151]) by mailer.cia-g.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA21301 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 1999 17:29:00 -0600 (MDT)
Message-ID: <3717C9BC.FF8033AD@...>
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 17:37:32 -0600
From: Vassan
Organization: Roadrunner Trading Co
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: agathiyar@egroups.com
Subject: [agathiyar] Re: Tribals reap rewards of 'eternal youth' tonic [fwd]
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=x-user-defined
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 282

INDIA ABROAD
April 16, 1999
INDIA - Kerala


Tribals reap rewards of 'eternal youth' tonic
=============================================

By T.P. ALEXANDER

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM -- A pioneering move by the Tropical Botanical Garden
and Research Institute
(TBGRI) here has benefitted a local tribe whose indigenous knowledge had
helped in the manufacture of a new tonic
that allegedly enhances youthfulness.

When a check of Rs. 519,000 ($12,350), the first installment of the
amount owed to the Kani tribespeople, was handed
over to the Kerala Kani Community Welfare Trust by TBGRI director P.
Pushpangadan last month it was a
significant moment: Their traditional knowledge and intellectual
property rights were being officially recognized
through benefit-sharing scheme.



Kutti Mathan Kani, a Kani tribesman, near Agasthyavanam
in north
Kerala. The Kani tribespeople have helped the Tropical
Botanical
Garden and Research Institute scientists in
Thiruvananthapuram to
manufacture a new youth-enhancing tonic. (Photo: AP)


Kani tribals from 30 settlements in and around the
Agasthyar Hills and scattered in
the villages of Amboori, Kuttichal, Peringamala,
Vithura and Kullathoopuzha in
north Kerala will benefit from the commercial returns
from the herbal drug.

After over a decade-long wait, the tribespeople are
reaping the rewards of revealing
the allegedly magical effects of a herb to TBGRI
scientists who developed a tonic
out of it after eight years of research.

The TBGRI product, named Jeevani, is made of the herb
Aarogyapacha (Tricopus
zeylanicus) and reportedly has immuno-enhancing,
anti-fatigue properties. It is said
to be the Indian answer to the massive Korean
export-earner Ginseng.

What is perhaps the world's first experiment in helping
indigenous people earn
money from traditional knowledge systems has been under
observation from
scientists and sociologists in several countries. Researchers from
London had come to the state to study various
aspects of the program. Research is currently on in London on "the TBGRI
model of benefit-sharing," according to
institute sources.

In keeping with the Convention of Biological Diversity document ratified
by 141 nations, the TBGRI had made it
clear in 1995, when the Jeevani technology was transferred to the Arya
Vaidya Pharmacy of Coimbatore, that benefits
derived out of the use of biodiversity or the knowledge associated with
it would be shared with the tribespeople.

When the license for manufacturing the herbal product was issued to the
pharmacy, it was stipulated that 50 percent of
the license fee of Rs. 1 million ($23,800) and 50 percent of the royalty
amount would go to the Kani tribespeople, who
would cultivate and supply the plants to the pharmacy.

Meanwhile, the state government has reportedly turned down a Japanese
offer to buy the DNA rights of the wonder
plant. A Japanese pharmaceutical company is said to have offered Rs. 10
million ($238,000) for the DNA rights.

In spite of the international acclaim it has won, the project was
hampered by bureaucratic snags last year following
the state Forest Department's decision to prevent the cultivation and
transportation of the plant by the tribespeople.

The Tribal Welfare Department then pulled out of the project citing
procedural difficulties and played spoilsport by
preventing the tribespeople from harvesting the plant.

Following a spate of protests, the Forest Department has now agreed in
principle to include Aarogyapacha in the list
of minor forest produce. This would enable the tribespeople to take up
commercial cultivation of the herb under a
buy-back arrangement with the manufacturing firm at Rs. 100 ($2.3) per
kg. The shortage of raw material is a vexing
problem for the pharmacy, which is struggling to meet export orders that
are pouring in.

The plant was discovered by a team of TBGRI scientists who went on a
trek in the forests of Agasthyar Hills in
December 1987 as part of an ethno-medical survey. Climbing the steep
mountains, most of the team members were
exhausted but, to their surprise, the Kani tribals guiding them remained
energetic, alert and agile. They were found
munching some small blackish fruit.

The tribespeople told the scientists that they were eating the unripe
fruit of Aarogyapacha (literally, greener of health)
on which one could live for days together without food, and still remain
energetic. If one ate it regularly, one remained
ever healthy, agile and young, they claimed.

A young tribesman offered the scientists a few fruits which tasted like
almond and had a pleasant flavor. What
surprised them, however, was the sudden flush of energy they gained.

The tribespeople were initially reluctant to reveal the identity of the
fruit, claiming it was a "sacred tribal secret."
They said their traditional herbal practices were part of the knowledge
imparted to their ancestors by sage Agasthya,
the founder of the Siddha system of medicine.

The Agasthyar Hills, named after the sage, are believed to have been his
abode. After much persuasion, the
tribespeople, however, showed the plant to the scientists.

The TBGRI researchers subsequently identified the plant as Trichopus
Zeylanicus Gaertn of the family of
Dioscoreaceae. A survey of the Ayurveda (ancient Indian alternative
medicine) classics suggested that the plant
might be the divine Varahi described by Sushruta in his age-old
compilations.

[end]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/agathiyar
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com