Professor Naeem Ahmad Khan
Four years back, Naeem Ahmad Khan, professor at faculty of Unani Medicine, Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College, Aligarh Muslim University, set a goal for himself-- he wanted to find a cure for diabetes.
It was possible only if he could regenerate the primary function of beta islet cells of the pancreas to store and release insulin.
Four years on, he claims to have succeeded in his mission. He has developed a medicine that, he says, will not only improve the function of pancreatic cells, but also protect them. Besides, it will regenerate beta islet cells and improve their health by giving them required nutrition.
"My medicine will regenerate the natural process of the pancreas. This medicine will help diabetic respond to fluctuations in blood glucose concentrations quickly by releasing stored insulin," says Dr Khan.
He believes that the medicine, if clears clinical trials, will be a better alternative to the existing drugs. "Modern diabetic medicines stimulate beta cells to produce and release more insulin. If a person develops diabetes at a younger age, these medicines stop working after a few years. Then the alternative before the patient is to take insulin supplement, which is an expensive as well as painful treatment," he says.
The clinical trial of the medicine, he believes, will help standardise traditional medicine system in India and bring it at par with modern medicine
"Apart from restoring the normal functioning of beta cells, I believe that this medicine will also bring down the number of pancreatitis cases in diabetes," he says.
Khan says that his medicine has already been tested on animals and has gone through the necessary toxicological studies to rule out any heavy metal impurities and other toxic effects. It has been passed by the Government of India's Institutional Ethical Committee, he adds.
The drug will soon be tested clinically before it is available in the market. "We will study it in a controlled environment where we will monitor its effect on diabetes in non- insulin dependent patients. We will also compare it with other existing popular modern drugs," says Khan.
The clinical trial of the medicine, he believes, will help standardise traditional medicine system in India and bring it at par with modern medicine. "Evidence-based traditional medicine is the need of the hour. We need to exploit their potential to help people deal with various lifestyle diseases," he says.
Khan says that this medicine has been developed from eight different medicinal plants, some of which were used by ancient Unani practitioners. "These medicines are as scientific as allopathic drugs. We need to validate their worth and that's what I have been trying to do all these years, " he says.