Meet promotes NE’s traditional healthcare practices
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 20: In a bid to promote traditional healthcare practices of Northeastern states, including Meghalaya, the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD) organised a traditional healers’ business meet at Upper Shillong on Wednesday.
According to a statement here, the programme was attended by traditional healers of Meghalaya, research scholars, scientists from BRDC, IBSD, Imphal, Shillong and other investigators from collaborative institutes.
IBSD Director Prof. Pulok Kumar Mukherjee, who was part of the programme, highlighted the initiatives of IBSD for documentation, validation and evaluation of traditional healthcare practices of Manipur and Meghalaya.
In his address, he also informed that the IBSD is working on the ethnopharmacological perspectives of medicinal plants, including their cultivation, chemical profiling, promotion, value addition and promotion of start-ups in the Northeast.
Mukherjee went on to inform that the IBSD has organised many such programmes in the Northeast to establish linkages between traditional healers, scientific communities and industries.
Head, NER-BPMC, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), New Delhi, Dr. Suraksha S. Diwan, on the other hand, highlighted various initiatives of DBT for the Northeast and various opportunities for the development of bioresources and traditional healthcare practices.
Similarly, Chief R&D Officer, Himalaya Wellness, Jean Francois Porracchia, highlighted global perspectives of development of herbal medicines.