Govt denies Ayurvedic drugs contain too much heavy metals

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday categorically denied that some Ayurvedic drugs manufactured by leading companies contained heavy metals above the permissible limit as reported in a US medical journal.
The US Food and Drug Administration had urged consumers to use caution with Ayurvedic products based on the information contained in an article in the ���Journal of the American Medical Association���, health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told Rajya Sabha.
The minister informed the House that the government took immediate steps to test samples of the drugs mentioned by the journal in labs accredited by the National Accreditation Board of Laboratories (NABL).
"After examination, it was found that no Indian-exported herbal Ayurvedic medicine contained toxic heavy metals more than the permissible limit," he said.
The minister said metals were essential ingredients in herbo-mineral and herbo-metallic preparations. However, they were permitted to be used only after due purification and only in small quantities to act as catalysts for activation of other herbal ingredients to increase the efficacy of the medicine.
"The Centre has made testing for heavy metals mandatory in all purely herbal Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicines to be exported since January 2006," he added.