Tribal triumph
The New Delhi-based National Patent Office has granted a patent of an anti-diabetic medicine to the Kani tribals of Kerala. The medicine, now scientifically proven to be potent and safe, is derived from the roots of the creeper Humboldita decurrens ( Chembravalli in Malayalam). The herb has been used traditionally by the Kanis for the treatment of diabetes and some allergies. The patent was awarded on an application moved jointly in 1997 by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Shri Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, and the Kerala government's Kerala Institute for Research Training and Development Studies for Scheduled Castes and Tribes (KIRTADS).
The institutes have now filed an international patent for Chembravalli with the office of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the Geneva-based organisation under the World Intellectual Properties Organisation, to thwart any transnational move to appropriate rights on the herb. The three institutes will remain joint owners of all intellectual property rights emerging from the initiative, but the profits from their commercial exploitation will go to the Kanis. Tests show that Chembravalli could reduce blood sugar levels by 51 per cent, which is comparable to the therapeutic effects of Daonil, a popular allopathic anti-diabetic pill.