Dr. N. Zaheer Ahmed
Established in 1978, Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India is actively engaged in research and development activities on the applied as well as fundamental aspects of Unani Medicine. Council has made significant strides in pre-clinical, clinical research, drug standardization, survey and cultivation of medicinal plants, and literary research. It is also actively engaged in research-oriented health extension services, activities related to information, education and communication (IEC). With the pan-India presence of 23 peripheral centres, the work is carried out by a dedicated team of scientists and technical manpower. Noteworthy contribution has been made by the Council in providing general medical care to the patients, bringing out innovative research outcomes, obtaining patents and bringing out scientific publications in various journals of international and national repute. Officers of the Council were also active during COVID-19 Pandemic in carrying out multifaceted activities like awareness generation, research studies, formulating advisories, distributing prophylactic medicines. CCRUM carried out 12 studies and published around 21 papers related to various aspects of COVID-19. The pre-clinical work aims in generating safety and toxicity data of Unani formulations and the focus of Clinical research is towards generating safety and efficacy data of classical Unani formulations, validating traditional Unani therapies and developing new drugs. Under the literary research programme, Council is engaged in translating classical Arabic and Persian books into Urdu, Hindi, English and other languages. Digitizing manuscripts and reprinting of out of print classical books is also one of an important component of this program. To ensure quality of Unani medicinal products, the council is actively engaged in drug standardization program and have developed pharmacopoeial standards for 298 single drugs and 200 compound formulations which have been published in Unani pharmacopoeia of India. It is our mandate to strive for excellence and in this endeavour the council is collaborating with premier institutes like Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute (VPCI), Lady Hardinge Medical College, Jamia Hamdard, Jamia Millia Islamia at New Delhi, SRMIST University, NIPER, Hyderabad and many other reputed institutes. Believing in multi stakeholder consultation approach, there is an active interface with academia, industry and research organizations.
The Council is also actively engaged in achieving the goals of National Health Policy, 2017 which lay emphasis on mainstreaming of AYUSH systems. It is carrying out public outreach activities through mobile clinical research program, school health programs, special health sub plans program for scheduled caste and scheduled tribes, Swasthya Rakshan Programme, through its peripheral centres. Survey and cultivation of medicinal plants is an important program being implemented by the Council. Our Peripheral institutes have conducted ethnobotanical surveys, collected folklore claims from forest areas of different states and documented it and brought out publications in this regard. The herbarium sheets are maintained for the collected specimens and digitization activities are also undergoing in various institutes. India, with a robust infrastructure and well regulated system of practice, is the world leader in Unani medicine and is making its mark at global front. CCRUM is collaborating with Hamdard University, Bangladesh, Avicenna Tajik State Medical University, Tajikistan, University of Western Cape, South Africa and the Government of Iran through an MoU & MoM signed by the Ministry of Ayush, with academic chairs in countries like South Africa and Bangladesh. The council is embarking on bringing standards in healthcare delivery system. It has established state-of-the-art facilities at its research centres and some of them have been accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) and National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) with few GMP certified pharmacies. Officers of CCRUM are actively engaged in contributing towards various initiatives of the World Health Organization and Ministry of Ayush including the development of ‘WHO International Standard Terminologies on Unani Medicine’, ‘WHO Benchmarks for the Training of Unani Medicine’, ‘WHO Benchmarks for the Practice of Unani Medicine’ and inclusion of Unani morbidity codes in ICD-11.
Unani Day celebration is an annual event held on 11th February where there is representation from different parts of countries and experts shared their knowledge, experience and innovations in the field of Unani Medicine and its contribution to health and well being. CCRUM has also implemented A-HMIS, NAMSTE Portal and SNOMED-CT projects under Ayush Grid scheme of the Ministry of Ayush. During the four and a half decade of its existence, the CCRUM has obtained significant leads in its research programmes and is committed to foster further research and development activities and achieve greater outcomes in the coming years. I fervently hope that with the dedicated team of hardworking and enthusiastic scientists, Council will reach greater heights and bring solutions to national priority diseases through Unani Medicine for the benefit of the masses.
Best wishes
Dr. N. Zaheer Ahmed
Director General