Traditional medicine has got its biggest stamp of approval from the scientific community up until now, with one of its practitioners finally getting the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2015.Dr. Tu Youyou, the 84 years old lady scientist from China who introduced the anti-malarial properties of extracts of a plant (sweet wormwood) to modern medicine, is the recipient of this year's prestigious prize. Artemisinin, the compound that she extracted and discovered, is currently the most favoured and safest anti-malarial drug used worldwide, and has saved millions of lives from malaria.
The story of Dr Tu’s discovery is an interesting one. In 1967, Communist leader Mao Zedong decided there was an urgent national need to find a cure for malaria when it was spread by mosquitoes and killing Chinese soldiers fighting Americans in the jungles of northern Vietnam.
A secret research unit was formed to find a cure. Tu Youyou was appointed head of Mission 523 and dispatched to southern China where malaria was rampant. For six months, she stayed there, leaving her four-year-old daughter at a local nursery.
When she started her search for an anti-malarial drug, over 240,000 compounds around the world had already been tested, without any success.
Finally, the team found a brief reference to one substance, sweet wormwood, which had been used to treat malaria in China around 400 AD. The team isolated one active compound in wormwood, artemisinin, which appeared to kill malaria parasites.
How the original Chinese texts helped is the story that should inspire our traditional practitioners: when the team tested extracts of the compound, nothing proved effective in killing malaria initially until Tu Youyou returned to the original ancient text. After another careful reading, she tweaked the drug recipe one final time, ensuring not to boil the extract, that then destroyed the anti-malarial property, but to extract it at lower heating temperatures or through use of solvents.
What should further inspire our practitioners of CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) is that Dr Tu did not have a medical degree, no doctorate, and had never worked overseas, the three pre-requisites we often consider essential for medical discovery. She was however observant, questioning and persevering in what she pursued.
Traditional medicine is a huge market today of US $ 60 billion. Chinese traditional medicine accounts for $14 billion. Indian traditional medicine also occupies a slice of the pie.
But it is that final proof that makes a compound or extract get global scientific acceptance. And that is where our Indian traditional practitioners should do well to work hard and leave their stamp.
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