India has an ancient heritage of traditional medicine. The materia medica of India provides a great deal of information on the folklore practices and traditional aspects of therapeutically important natural products. Indian traditional medicine is based on various systems including Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani. The evaluation of these drugs is primarily based on phytochemical, pharmacological, and allied approaches including various instrumental techniques such as chromatography, microscopy, and others. These traditional systems of Indian medicine are each unique but there is a common thread in their fundamental principles and practices. With the emerging worldwide interest in adopting and studying traditional systems and exploiting their potential based on different health care systems, the evaluation of the rich heritage of traditional medicine is essential. The government and the private sector are exploring all of the possibilities for the perfect evaluation of these systems in order to effectively adopt the therapeutic approaches available in original systems of medicine as well as to help in generating data to put these products on the national health program.

There is tremendous growth of traditional systems of health care globally, and Indian traditional systems of medicine based on different aspects of folklore medicines have also developed a lot. There are several constraints in the proper development of Indian traditional systems of medicine:

* Lack of awareness that Ayurveda, Siddha, and Unani are basically systems of health care aimed at maintaining the normal health of human beings,

* Inadequate knowledge and lack of updating knowledge about products,

* The rules and regulations imposed for traditional medicine are almost the same as those for chemical based drugs; they are difficult to follow,

* Availability of raw materials: Already 29 plants and their value added products have been banned by the government of India as endangered plants. In addition to conservation of the environment, conservation of traditional systems of medicine is equally important by following different other techniques, which need to be exercised.

Considering these problems and prospects, India has had a great heritage of traditional systems of medicine since time immemorial. India is one of the leading biodiversity centers with 45000 different plant species. The country has 15000 to 18000 flowering plants, 23000 fungi, 2500 algae, 1600 lichens, 1800 bryophytes, and 13 million microorganisms in its biodiversity region (10). Out of these strong resources 1250 are included in traditional medicinal practices. Thus, India has a rich heritage of its own as far as the natural products and particularly medicinal plants are concerned because of its wide diversity in soil and climatic condition and rich flora and fauna. Evaluation of Indian traditional medicine is possible through the proper exploitation and exploration of the wide biodiversity and great ancient treatises of traditional medicine in the light of modern tools and techniques.

Acknowlegments-The author is thankful to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Government of India, New Delhi for providing financial support under the Career Development for Young Teachers Award (F No. 1-52/CD/CA (08)/98-99). Thanks are due to the Drug Information Association for providing the financial assistance to present the article at the DIA 36th Annual Meeting, June 11-15, 2000 in San Diego, California.

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