Finding an alternative to cancerous ‘gutka’ and ‘paan masala’ might have been the biggest challenge for scientists and activists demanding a blanket ban on it. But the CSIR’s National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) has developed a better alternative.
The sorry state of this innovation is that the formulation is lying with the NBRI for more than four years as no major paan masala manufacturing company has shown their interest in transferring the people-friendly commodity and introduce it in billion rupee gutka market.
The Lucknow-based CSIR-NBRI has named the herbal gutka as “herbi choor” which gives the same feel and taste of paan masala to its consumers without affecting their vital organs.
“Given the rise in cases of oral and mouth cancer, the then NDRI director CS Nautiyal had developed a new formulation to put a check on the consumption of cancerous gutka by using herbs of similar taste. These herbs are safe to chew and have no side-effects on a person,” said AKS Rawat, who is heading Pharmacognosy & Ethnopharmacology Division at the NBRI.
“It has chewing properties, but there is no tobacco and nicotine in it. It has all the flavours of paan masala and even if it’s consumed by a gutka addict, he won’t be able to figure any differeence. It has the herbs which gives the same “kick” that a normal gutka has,” added Rawat.
He said, “This substance is 100 per cent herbal and even good for a healthy mouth. Even if a user gets addicted to ‘harbi choor’ and give up the cancerous paan masala, it will help in reducing the oral cancer cases and saving the lives of several poor people.”
Since the NBRI has filed for its patent, Rawat didn’t elaborate much about its contents, but said, said, “The formulation has been manufactured from dry herbs brought from Himalayan regions, elaichi, supari, amla, cardamom, peppermint, etc.”
The NBRI is in consultation with five paan masala manufacturing majors, including DS Group – manufactures of popular Rajnigandha, for technology transfer, but till date no one has come forward to buy their formulation for the public cause.
“Introduction of herbal gutka may bring path breaking changes in the society by putting a check on oral cancer prevalence as India reports about 80,000 new cases of such cancers every year,” Rawat said. In another landmark development, the NBRI has also launched ayurvedic drug called BGR-34 for for type-2 diabetes mellitus.
The medicine is being manufactured by AIMIL Pharmaceuticals with the technological support of NBRI and Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP).