New Delhi:
As many as 58 new COVID-19 trials involving Ayurveda intervention were registered from March 1 to June 25 in the Clinical Trial Registry of India, highlighting the emerging nationwide trend of evidence-based studies in Ayush disciplines, the AYUSH ministry said on Wednesday. News reports in August this year had revealed that out of the 203 trials registered in the CTRI, 61.5 per cent were from Ayush disciplines, the ministry said in a statement.
A recent study published in the ‘Journal of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences’ titled ‘Ayurveda Research Studies on COVID-19 Registered in CTRI: A Critical Appraisal’ throws more light on this growing “research culture” in Ayush disciplines. Of the total trials registered, approximately 70 per cent were sponsored by the government and various Ayurveda stakeholders associated with the Ministry of AYUSH.
“These trials will provide useful information to the researchers which will help them to strategize the next course of action and also help the general public in understanding the contribution of Ayurveda in (combating) COVID-19,” the ministry said. “Once completed, the results of these promising studies will expectedly be published at the earliest so that it will be useful for the policymakers from the Ayush systems of medicines to strategize effective solutions to benefit public health initiatives,” it said.
Further, in these challenging times, they will provide information for the global scientific community to know about the outcomes of Ayurveda clinical trials being conducted on COVID-19 in India, it added. These trials will form a potential source of information for further collaborative studies at the national and global levels, the statement said.
Of the 58 registered trials, 52 (89.66 per cent) are interventional trials and six (10.34 per cent) are observational trials, it stated. The majority of the trials included adult participants of both genders as the target population.
The instant paper which is authored by researchers of the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences provides detailed information about Ayurveda-based COVID-19 clinical trials with respect to administrative information on trial registry number and sponsorship, descriptive information on study type and length of study and study design, the ministry said. “With an increasing number of registered trials in this field, the body of knowledge in Ayush disciplines will increasingly reflect more contemporary information,” it said.
