'Completely Misleading': Govt On Study Linking Ayurvedic Medicinal Herb Giloy To Liver Damage

The government on Wednesday (7 July) slammed a media report based on a study that claims use of herb Tinospora Cordifolia (TC), commonly known as Giloy or Guduchi, resulted in liver failure in six patients in Mumbai.

In a statement, the AYUSH Ministry termed the study as "limited" and "completely misleading".

According to the ministry, the authors of the study, published in Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology, failed in placing all needful details of the cases in a systematic format.

"Apart from this, relating Giloy or TC to liver damage would be misleading and disastrous to the traditional medicine system of India as herb Guduchi or Giloy has been used in Ayurveda since long. The efficacy of TC in managing various disorders is well established," the ministry said.

The ministry further added, "After analysing the study, it was also noticed that the authors of the study have not analysed the contents of the herb that was consumed by the patients. It becomes the responsibility of the authors to ascertain that the herb consumed by the patients is TC and not any other herb".

"To build upon the soundness, the authors would have taken the opinion of a botanist or would have consulted an Ayurveda expert," it added.

The ministry further noted that there were many studies that point out that identifying the herb incorrectly could lead to wrong results.

"A similar looking herb TinosporoCrispa might have a negative effect on the liver. So, before labelling a herb, such as Giloy, with such toxic nature, the authors should have tried to correctly identify the plants following the standard guidelines, which they did not," the ministry said.

The ministry added that the study was unclear about what dose the patients had taken or whether they took this herb with other medicines.

Further, the study has not taken into account the past or present medical records of the patients, the ministry said.

The ministry added that publications based on incomplete information will open the door for misinformation and defame the age-old practices of Ayurveda.

"It would not be out of context to state here that Scientific Evidence on medical applications of TC or Giloy as protective to liver, nerves etc are available," it said.

"Giloy is one of the most commonly prescribed medicines in Ayurveda. It has proper pharmacopoeia standards in place of established safety of hepato-protective properties. No adverse event is noted in any clinical practice by pharmacovigilance or in any clinical study," the ministry added.

The ministry also slammed the newspaper "based on the much limited and misleading study without taking into account the voluminous peer reviewed, robust studies that speak for the efficacy of T Cordifolia and without consulting any reputed Ayurveda expert or the Ministry of Ayush".

This also is not up to the mark from a journalistic point of view, the ministry added.