Vedic,Traditional & Folk Medicine of India: THE BENEFITS & HARMS OF THE SPREAD OF HERBAL MEDICINE THROUGH DIGITAL & SOCIAL MEDIA .... A THOUGHT

Herbal medicine use and sustainable biodiversity implications are something we all should be concerned about. In age of digital media where news “right or wrong”, “fact or fiction” “fake or real” spreads like fire, its imperative we stop and think before jumping on to the bandwagon. Being an Ayurveda physician though i will restrict myself to herbs. Over years as digital media and instant messaging has grown with cheap data plans, I have seen a surplus growth of herbal cures and methods being propagated over social platforms through handheld devices. To be honest, I could relate to the good intention behind it overlooking the marketing economics & popularity sojourns associated with some of them. However for the first time in few months I am beginning to observe its repercussions on a grander scale.

Over 15 years of my Ayurveda clinical practise, my main mode of work has been to preserve bio-diversity (or in simpler terms herbs in their natural habitat) by creating awareness and sustainable picking. This is ensured through educating the locals about their herbal surroundings in remote villages (mainly in the western ghats & the Himalayas) and buying from them at a higher rate the selected produce in small quantities ensuring that the picking promotes more crop of the same species in coming years without any in-rooting of invasive species. Unfortunately in past few years this activity has seen cascading decline. Though there are many contributing factors to it like;

The local youth getting more lucrative job opportunities
Growing tourism
Urbanisation
Lack of transfer of traditional knowledge within generations

the one major impact has been digital media.

I will cite and example with one herb. A native herb to western ghats “Saptrangi ( Salacia sp)” has been doing rounds on the instant messaging community as a cure for cancer. The intention behind the video is genuine and pure and no one doubts that, but let us now shed some light on its passive repercussions.

I collect these roots in a sustainable format over the years from western ghats from locals. This plant has always been in abundance without much demand. Suddenly this year I find it out of reach with a high increase in price. The locals informed that after the spread of viral video, the demand rose like tsunami and every person who knew about it eroded it for commerce. This kind of unscrupulous picking leads to

Soil erosion causing landslides.
It creates danger for forest as many shrubs and herbs in their habitat promote diversity of other flora and fauna.
It reduces animals visiting the regions It is their excretions which leads to high nitrogen fixing and contributing to more nutritious forest.
It leads to open ground for breeding invasive species. Once these grow nothing else grows in the forest.

Western ghats are unesco protected region, one of the few bio-diversity hotspots of the world. Such actions ensure it wont remain that way for long. Having done my doctorate on ethno-botany & ethno-medicine in this very region, it's sad to see that the digital media instead of creating awareness is slowly contributing to its decline. The ghats have lost the tiger, black leopard and now precious herbs are on their way out.

A note about Ayurveda medicine.

If we scan the literature it is quite apparent that no entity in itself is medicine. It is in a perspective. Muddy waters of forest are source of infection to humans but they prove medicinal to animals. A herb similarly in itself has no intelligence. It just has properties. Those properties with proper diagnosis and methodology are evaluated and implemented in a patient by an Ayurveda physician. No doubt there are herbs that provide relief but eventually that action for most parts is in perspective towards that individual and cannot generalised.

Through this article I am no where against the good faith in which information about medicine (freely available) is spread. This article serves to create awareness amongst the recipient of such information, to research these facts, understand its implication on mass scale and then move ahead. Consult your Ayurveda physician for the same.

As for Saptrangi, there are many species of same genus and not all are out & out medicinal. 2 of these species can serve as poison if used injudiciously They can cause abortions and have effect on fertility. I am enumerating the species. Since only the information is spread on the media is about roots, It is extremely difficult to mark them out on species level. All look the same. I am putting pictures of the roots of 2 species, both sold as Saptrangi. One is safe other can be a poison if not taken with care. So take your pick...