The position of drugs used in traditional medicine within the Indian healthcare system

India is the only country in the globe with officially recognized multiple systems of medicine, namely Allopathy; Ayurveda; Yoga and Naturopathy; Unani; Siddha; and Homoeopathy. The traditional medicine came into the limelight because of the politicization of the traditional medicine agenda. India adopted a parallel model within the national health care system through the Indian Medicine Central Council Act in 1970. The modern and traditional medicines are separate within this. The National Health Policy of 1983 also focuses on the Indian Systems of Medicines and Homeopathy. The Department of Indian Systems of Medicines and Homoeopathy (ISM and H) was established under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 1995. This was renamed as the Department of Ayurveda; Yoga and Naturopathy; Unani; Siddha; and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) in 2003.The origin of Ayurveda goes back to 5.000 B.C. in India. It has been written in Sanskrit language. Unani originated in Greece around 980 A.D. and was introduced in India by the Arabs. The literature available is in Arabic and Persian language. Siddha originated in the southern part of India and the literature available is in Tamil language (AYUSH, 2007). After a brief description of the scope of the traditional medicines (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and some tribal drugs) in India, the issues related to their research, standardization and Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Systems (TRIPS) is documented in this article