A teacher gives pride of place for Neelathamara

PALAKKAD: A teacher at the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School in Pudur, Attapadi, Dilip Kumar has shown the world the recuperative potential of the herb neelathamara (nervilia plicata).During his research, he discovered that the extract of the herb was capable of curing kidney ailments besides lowering blood glucose in diabetic rats.“Neelathamara has long been used by traditional healers of Wayanad in anti-diabetic medicinal preparations but the recuperative potential of the plant remained undefined,“ Dilip said. He will be leaving for Montreal in Canada on Wednesday to present a paper on the anti-diabetic properties of neelathamara at the EPS Montreal International Conference on Metabolic Diseases-2011.Dilip, a native of Wayanad, said he undertook this research as part of his thesis in bio-chemistry which dealt with ethnopharmacology. The research was completed under the guidance of Prof Dr G R Janardhana, Botany Dept, University of Mysore.Dilip, a faculty member of agriculture for the last three years at the VHSS in Pudur, said that as part of the anti-diabetes research, he had documented 23 medicinal recipes being used by traditional healers of Wayanad. The results of the study were first published in Journal of Ethnopharmacology recently. Part of these studies were also published in US-based journal Ethno Botony and the Indian Journal of Traditional Medicine.The publications concluded that these results demonstrate significant anti-diabetic and regenerative potential of nervilia plicata, justifying the use of the plant in indigenous system of medicine.Dilip said the studies revealed that neelathamara has one or more anti-diabetic compounds that improved the physiology of the affected rats.  These bio-active constituents normalise blood glucose and improve the structural integrity of the kidney and pancreas. Dilip has isolated some of the anti-diabetic active constituents present in the plant so that he could apply for a patent when the side-effects of the compounds are completely investigated.  After the completion of this investigative process, this plant extract could be brought out as a drug for type 2 diabetes.