Herbal remedy for diabetes finds no takers

NEW DELHI: First the good news. Even those diabetics who do not respond to conventional drugs have a hope. The Indian Council of Medical Research has clearly established that a herbal product, Vijaysar - obtained from the bark of a tree, helps control blood glucose levels.
And now the bad news: The research, which could have benefited hundreds of diabetic patients has remained confined to scientific discussions.
After years of collecting substantial evidence, benefits of this research are yet to reach people as enough efforts have not been made to push this herbal product into the market.
Chairman of the scientific group on traditional medicines at ICMR, Dr Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, who made some efforts when the results started coming out, gave up when negotiations either didn''t come through or just got trickier.
"All of us are busy doing our own thing. There is no one to push it," he says.
For India as well as other parts of the world, this could have been a promising herbal product, with enough scientific backing.