India foils US firm bid to patent turmeric

The claim made by a US multinational company on the usefulness of turmeric, apple, basil (tulsi) for the treatment of inflammation, psoriasis and gastritis has been foiled by India, thanks to the efforts of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. Vanita Srivastava reports.

The claim made by a US multinational company on the usefulness of turmeric, apple, basil (tulsi) for the treatment of inflammation, psoriasis and gastritis has been foiled by India, thanks to the efforts of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library.

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Metaproteomics had filed a patent application at the Canada Intellectual Property Office. The patent title "Curcuminoid compositions exhibiting synergistic inhibition of the expression and/ or activity of Cyclooxygenase-2" claimed the usefulness of turmeric, apple, basil, kalamegha and licorice for the treatment of inflammation, psoriasis, gastritis and as anti-inflammatory to be novel.

The Traditional Knowledge Digital

Library (TKDL), a unit of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) submitted prior art evidences in the form of references in books from 18th century to the 20th century citing evidences that turmeric, apple, basil, kalamegha and licorice have been used alone or in combination with a few other ingredients for the treatment of inflammation, psoriasis, gastritis and as anti-inflammatory in the Indian systems of medicine. The books that were used by TKDL for citing prior art of evidences include Khazaain-al-Advia, Muheet-e-Azam, Vaidyamanorama, Rasayoga Sagara, Rajanighantauh, Bhavaprakasa, Siddhabhesajamanimala and Ilaaj-al-Amraaz. "Within a period of 87 weeks, a 10 years' old attempt to pirate India's knowledge by a multinational company of USA was ended," sources added.