Traditional Knowledge based Bioprospecting for Health and Livelihood Security of
Communities:
Innovative Participatory Methods and Models
-Dr. Padma Venkatasubramanian
Joint Director, Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT),
Bangalore, India
padmavenkatl@rediffmail.com
Traditional health care systems, using ecosystem-specific resources are both culturally and
economically sustainable, while services through modern health care systems are increasingly
becoming expensive, particularly for developing countries. WHO (2002) has marked the
importance of traditional medicine in meeting the health needs of indigenous people, rural
communities and the poor throughout the developing world, as well as in meeting the pluralistic
health requirements of more affluent consumers internationally. The World bank (1997) has
predicted that botanical medicines will constitute a substantial international industry and thus
there is a role for producers from developing countries. Much of the products will be in the
emerging areas of functional foods, nutraceuticals and comeceuticals that are based on traditional
knowledge. Even now, almost 60% of the drugs in the market are either isolated from natural
products or are synthetic derivatives of naturally existing compounds.
Bioprospecting or hunt for medicines from nature can be better guided if based on traditional
knowledge with community participation so that the context of the knowledge is kept intact. The
focus for bioprospecting can be (i) for Primary Health Care (PHC), where self-medication through
simple interventions is possible by the communities and (ii) for priority diseases and health
conditions as Prescription Drugs, requiring partners for R&D, production and marketing.
There are several issues tied to using traditional knowledge such as cultural differences, costs,
access, Science and Technology, Intellectual Property and benefit sharing. Nevertheless, there
are increasing examples from different nations, particularly developing, which are demonstrating
innovative methods and models that are workable. These can be adopted, scaled up and modified
to suit different communities or nations to not only address health security but also livelihood
security.
A methodology developed by FRLHT called Documentation and Rapid Assessment of Local
Health Traditions is a rapid, cost-effective, yet reasonably rigorous methodology to identify region1
specific human and ethnoveterinary health practices and resources used by communities. This
method has been helpful to promote Home Herbal Garden programmes for PHC needs which in
turn have spun off revenue generation activities to communities through sale of nursery saplings
and value added herbal products. FRLHT has promoted more than 200000 HHGs mostly in the
rural households, and currently extending to urban communities as well.
A community-owned enterprise called Gram Mooligai Company Limited which was also promoted
by FRLHT, is involved in supply of medicinal raw materials through collection and cultivation. It
has developed ecosystem based herbal products that were derived from the DALHT exercise.
While initially the products developed were OTC and for common conditions such as fever, cough
and wounds, the product range now includes products for diabetes that are on prescription. The
SHG shareholders directly benefit through buy-back arrangement of the herbs, employment for
distribution of products through the Sangha (group) network as well as through profit sharing.
The triangular model for benefit sharing between community (knowledge/bioresource owner), R &
D institute and industry is exemplified through the story of Kani tribe. Ongoing Public-Private
Partnerships (PPP) have been promoted with Government support for cure against AIDS and
other conditions in many African nations such as South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. The
partnership between San tribe, CSIR of S. Africa and Phytopharm, UK, on the Hoodoo cactus, is
another example of benefit sharing model with Government intervention. Independent work is also
undertaken by groups such as Research into Traditional Anti-Malarials (RITAM) where interested
NGOs and research organizations across the world have got together for scientifically validating
the traditional medical knowledge for use as anti-malarial.
At FRLHT, inter-cultural study on the epistemology of traditional medical knowledge has been
used as a method to identify, develop and test classical and novel herbal formulations for womenrelated health conditions such as pregnancy anaemia and lactation. The technology of the
products developed would be transferred to community owned enterprises that will manufacture
and market these products to their communities.
Thus, the environment is congenial for such un-conventional yet sustainable ways to ensure safe
and affordable health services and product to communities. In many instances it also addresses
livelihood security and/or poverty reduction.
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