The decision to establish an international research centre for herbal medicine in Dhaka is most welcome. People all over the globe are being increasingly drawn to medicinal plants and herbal drugs as a medication option, based mostly on traditional knowledge. But there has not been much research in this country to set a strong foundation for that knowledge. In this context, it is a heartening development that for the first time, a move is on and that too in a big way in this direction. The research centre will be established at Mirpur, Dhaka with soft loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The decision on funding the research centre was taken in the recently held meeting of the IDB's Board of Executive Directors.
Increasing popularity of herbal medicine is largely attributed to the side-effect-free, organic substances they are made of. Eighty per cent of the population in developing countries, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), rely on herbal medicine for their primary healthcare. The WHO has officially recognised and recommended large-scale use of herbal medicines, particularly in the developing countries, as an alternative medicine to provide healthcare services at the primary stage of healthcare. About 1.5 billion people of the world population, as the WHO has estimated, are now getting treatment with herbal medicines. Global sales of botanicals are over US$ 120 billion annually and are projected to reach $3.0 trillion by the year 2020.
In the sub-continent, use of herbal medicines and a variety of medicinal plants traces back thousands of years. But absence of research has left it as an unguarded arena with accompanying indiscipline. Suffice it to say, had there been extensive scientific research and analysis, herbal drugs now being applied on traditional wisdom could have flourished to the benefit of the common people on a much larger scale. Moreover, as a result of the absence of research, practitioners too are not aware of the actual efficacy of the medicines they prescribe. Side by side, there is also a noticeable growth of fake herbal drugs sold all over the country. Once the sector is brought under the scanner of scientific investigation and research, it is highly likely to be disciplined. This, no doubt, will bring modern technology to facilitate manufacturing of the drugs.
In Bangladesh, although herbal medicine is extensively used and is particularly popular among the low-income groups, the unregulated nature of processing and marketing of the drugs figures as a problem area to be addressed. So far, there is no designated regulatory body to oversee the functioning of the sector, and as a result, it has turned into a happy hunting ground for the quacks and illiterate medicos. The country is believed to be rich in herbal plants. Disciplining the sector should also take care of the methods in which the plants are grown and harvested. All these can hopefully be addressed once adequate scientific research is in place to establish the much needed link, now missing, to the preventive and therapeutic ingredients of herbal medicines.