Our vision

“To Revitalise Indian Medical Heritage”

FRLHT believes revitalisation of Indian Medical Heritage holds two promises for India, viz., self-reliance in primary health care for millions of households and original contributions to the world of medicine. FRLHT holds the view that in an era of globalisation, India should make fuller use of her rich and diverse medicinal plant knowledge for her own needs and confidently share on fair terms with the rest of the world, products and services based on her heritage).

Our Mission
 

To demonstrate the contemporary relevance of Indian Medical Heritage by designing and implementing innovative programmes related to
A. exposition of the theory & practice of traditional systems of medicine, 
B. conservation of the natural resources used by Indian systems of medicine 
C. revitalisation of social processes for transmission of the heritage, 
on a size and scale that will have societal impact. 

The institutional agenda

The institutional agenda of the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) is derived from its vision: “to revitalize Indian medical”. FRLHT has identified three thrust areas to fulfill this vision.
These are:
i)  Conserving natural resources used by Indian Systems of Medicine [C]
ii) Demonstrating contemporary relevance of theory and practice of Indian Systems of Medicine [D]
iii) Revitalisation of social processes (institutional, oral and commercial) for transmission of traditional knowledge of health care for its wider use and application [R]

All the current programmes and projects of FRLHT can be covered under these three thrust areas.

The following paragraphs cover briefly the scope of activities being carried out as well as those envisaged, under the three thrust areas mentioned above.

In operational terms the FRLHT has articulated specific programmes and sub-programmes under each of the thrust areas. For instance, under the first thrust area viz., “Conserving natural resources used by Indian Systems of Medicine”, FRLHT concentrates on research programmes involving studies related to: inventorising medicinal plants in different forest types; threat assessment; saving species on the verge of extinction and sustainable harvest. Under this thrust area, FRLHT also    undertakes other important programmes related to efforts towards development of databases and establishment of a bio-cultural herbarium and raw-drug repository of the plants of India.

In the second thrust area viz., “Demonstrating contemporary relevance of theory and practice of Indian systems of medicine”, FRLHT engages in major programmes such as assessment and documentation of local health practices prevalent in different rural and urban communities. It also has a major programme related to interpretation of traditional medical theories and practices with the use of scientific laboratory tools. Other programmes under this thrust area include creation of traditional knowledge databases and development of methodologies for cross-cultural medical research.

The third thrust area deals with the “Revitalisation of social processes” (institutional, oral and commercial) for transmission of traditional knowledge of health care and the main programmes under this thrust area are; building   decentralized associations of folk healers and self-help women groups   and  promoting community-owned enterprises. A major initiative under this thrust area, for influencing institutional processes, is the development of a research hospital, pharmacy and a post-graduate training institute. These are currently being planned. It is anticipated that these will be instrumental in bringing into the mainstream Ayurveda, yoga & folk medicine.

Click here to see the chart that portrays all the institutional activities currently being pursued at FRLHT in order to achieve the stated vision.

Institutional Status
FRLHT is a registered Public Trust and Charitable Society, which started its activities outlined below in March 1993. The Ministry of Science & Technology recognizes FRLHT as a scientific and research organization. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has designated FRLHT as a National Center of Excellence for medicinal plants and traditional knowledge.

Awards

1998:  In 1998, FRLHT received the prestigious Norman Borlaug award for its contributions to this field.

2002:  In 2002 the ‘Medicinal Plants Programme’ in Peninsular India was one of the projects selected by the United Nations from around the globe for the Equator Initiative Prize. This prize was awarded in Johannesburg at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

2003:  In November 2003, the Rosenthal Centre for Complementary & Alternative Medicine, in the Columbia University, New York, awarded FRLHT with its first award for “International Cultural Stewardship”.
 

Governing Council Members (2003-2004)

Mr. Sam G. Pitroda
Chairman, WorldTEL, UK
Dr. Kamaljit Bawa
Professor, University of Massachusetes, USA
Dr. Gerard Bodeker
Professor, Oxford University, UK

Mr. AV Balasubramanian
Director, Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, Chennai
Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala
Professor, IIT, Chennai
Prof. KRS Murthy
Former Director, Indian Institute of Management , Bangalore
Prof. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury
Emeritus Professor, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi
Mr. Amit Agarwal
Director, Natural Remedies, Bangalore
Mrs. Bhargavi Amma
Vedic Scholar, Kerala
Mr. SN Batliwala
Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Mumbai 
Dr. Padma Venkat
Jt. Director (Lab), FRLHT
Dr. GG Gangadharan
Jt. Director (TSM), FRLHT
Mr. DK Ved, IFS
Addl. Director (Research & Adm), FRLHT
Mr. Darshan Shankar
Director, FRLHT

 

In News

Bangalore-based foundation wins Colombia University award (Hindustan Times, India, 21 Nov 2003)
The Bangalore-based Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT) has won the prestigious alternative medicine award of Columbia University for its "outstanding" role in promoting traditional medicine systems and conservation of Indian medicinal plants. FRLHT's Director Darshan Shankar on Thursday night received the International Cultural Stewardship award instituted by the university's Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Centre of Complementary and Alternative Medicines . 

Bangalorean bags US award (Deccan Herald, India, 12 Nov 2003)
Mr Darshan Shankar, Director of Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), Bangalore, has been selected by the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The Rosenthal Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, USA, for an international award for his and the foundation’s “crucial role on behalf of Traditional Systems of Medicine.” The award will be presented on November 20, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the centre.  Read the full news

Colombia Varsity award for Bangalore firm (The Hindu, New York, Nov. 21, 2003)
The Bangalore-based Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT) has won the prestigious alternative medicine award of Columbia University for its "outstanding" role in promoting traditional medicine systems and conservation of Indian medicinal plants. Read the full story

Modern warrior for traditional knowledge (Business Standard, India, 17 Nov 2003)
This week Darshan Shankar journeys to New York to receive an award from Columbia University. Its Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the first -of-its-kind in the US, is celebrating its tenth anniversary and Shankar will be one of the five who will be honoured. Read the full news

Healing, our way (The Hindu, India, 20 Nov 2003)
Darshan Shankar, Director, Foundation for the Revitalization of Local Health Tradition, has played a vital role in making the world see the value of traditional Indian medical practices. Read the full news

‘Rising health costs may push 2.2 mn people to poverty each year’  (Express Healthcare management, India, 31 Dec 2001) 
Darshan Shankar, director, Foundation for revitalisation of Local Health Tradition, Bangalore, said that there was an immense scope of collaboration between medical cultures at the level ranging from primary health to specialty healthcare. The challenge we face is how to integrate? He said that documentation for Indian systems of medicine was needed. Read the full story

Bangalore's FRLHT wins Colombia University Award (Indiainfo, New York, 21 Nov 2003)
The Bangalore-based Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT) has won the prestigious alternative medicine award of Columbia University for its "outstanding" role in promoting traditional medicine systems and conservation of Indian medicinal plants. Read the full story

Columbia University honours Bangalore institute (NDTV, India, Nov 21, 2003)
Columbia University has honoured a Bangalore-based institute and its director, Darshan Shankar, for the work being done to revitalize traditional Indian systems of medicine and the conservation of medicinal plants.
Read the full story

Three Community Initiatives in India Receive UNDP Equator Prize for Innovation in Poverty Eradication, Sustainable Development (UNDP News, Nov 2002)
The United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) prestigious Equator Prize was given to three Indian grassroots community-driven initiatives in sustainable development and poverty eradication on 17 October. The $30,000 (nearly Rs 15 lakh) Prizes were presented at separate functions in Lucknow, Bangalore and Koraput, Orissa, held to mark the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Read the full story
 

Memory drugs anyone? (Deccan Herald, India, Nov 9, 2003)
According to Amita Kaushal, Assistant Editor of Amruth, the Traditional Health Care Bi-Monthly of FRLHT (Foundation for Re-vitalisation of Local Health Tradition), in her article Misleading Means for Memory (September-October 2003 Vol 7 issue 5) “when most of the users claimed that the drug failed to enhance memory, as was claimed by advertisements, and when once the complaints started pouring in, CDRI, in a kneejerk reaction, cancelled the MoU signed with the company.... However Memory Plus is still sold in the market.” 
Read the full story

Healing herbs (Deccan Herald, India, Feb 8, 2003)
Even as the world is beginning to turn to Ayurveda, an organisation in Bangalore has been doing meticulous research for seven years in every exciting field of this system of medicine, to make it available to the common man. The Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) has, in its Bi-monthly magazine ‘Amruth’, featured hundreds of articles on Ayurveda such as Psoriasis in Ayurveda, The Ayurvedic Way of Knowing, interesting Ayurveda physicians, Ayurveda for diabetes etc. Read the full story

A green pharmacy (The Hindu, India, Oct 8, 2000)
Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions, Bangalore.Indian people had an incredible knowledge of phyto-medicine driven apparently by a tremendous passion for the study of medicinal plants. This is evident both in the living folk traditions in the rural communities as well as the scholarly traditions of the codified knowledge systems - i.e., Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Tibetan. Indians obviously care for medicinal plants because they know so much about them and have done so much work on their applications. Probably, no other medical culture in the world has so extensive, detailed and deep an understanding about the medicinal value of plants. 
Read the full story

A TRAVELING EXHIBITION ON RAINFORESTS, THE MEDICAL HERITAGE OF INDIA AND MEDICINAL PLANTS
(Rainforest Medical Bulletin, The Netherlands, December 1998) 
A year ago we started a rather hazardous enterprise, which - thanks to a fair dose of divine protection, good luck and collaborative human efforts - was brought to a good end. Our mission involved the distribution of a fragile exhibition by truck over a distance of 3500 km through S. India, and the presentation of its Indian and Dutch components as one integrated educational event. Before going into further details on this initiative, we first introduce the people involved and explain why and how this collaboration came about. On the Indian side, two groups were involved, the Medicinal Plants Conservation Network (MPCN) and the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT). MPCN ties up a large number of (non-)governmental organisations involved with forest conservation and the promotion of traditional medicine. This programme embraces the three most southern Indian states and is coordinated from Bangalore by FRLHT. Read the full story

Green health boom (The Hindu, India, May 20, 2001)
The words of a tribal song say: "I love the forests, they keep me, my animals and my fields healthy . . ." Biodiversity and health are intrinsically linked. This link can be clearly seen, firstly, if we understand the basics of biodiversity itself. A variety of life forms exist and flourish across diverse ecosystems: mountains, coasts, seas, forests, lakes and rivers, and so on. Millions of species of plants, animals and micro-organisms exist in a "healthy" way in their own natural habitats. Health is therefore implied in the very "existence" of biodiversity. 
Read the full story

Colombia Varsity award for Bangalore firm (India Agribusiness Newsletter, India, December 2003)
The Bangalore-based Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition (FRLHT) has won the prestigious alternative medicine award of Columbia University for its "outstanding" role in promoting traditional medicine systems and conservation of Indian medicinal plants. Read the full story

Monumental heritage (The Hindu, India, Oct 8, 2000)
What are local health traditions? They date back to the cave man who started consuming raw vegetables and fruits when he had to satisfy his hunger and also imitate the action of the animals, which consumed plants for any health disorder. Read the full story

Need for friendly interaction (The Hindu, India, Oct 8, 2000)
According to a Conservation Analysis and Management Process (Camp) study conducted by FRLHT, a Bangalore based NGO as per the IUCN norms, around 59 species are coming under the Rare Endangered and Threatened Species (RET) and the Ministry of Environment has to ban export of the produce of these herbs in 1998. However, due to pressure from the industry as well as export promotion councils the Government of India had to lift the ban for the time being. Consequently the list was brought down to 28. Read the full story

Neem power (Deccan Herald, India, December 02, 2003)
Recent studies at the Bangalore based Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), on Brahmi plant and its extracts seem to agree with the findings of UAS team. Brahmi plant is known to contain Bacosides, the memory enhancing drugs. Bacosides are now extracted, formulated into pills and marketed in India under various brand names. Preliminary studies carried out at FRLHT have indicated that the fresh leaves of Brahmi have more memory enhancing activity as compared to the extracts. Read the full story

Of Healers and Plants (Boloji, India, Jan 14, 2004)
In Andhra Pradesh, FRLHT covers eight MPCAs. FRLHT, which provides technical expertise to all MPCAs, has been working with the state forest departments, NGOs and research institutes - for the conservation of medicinal plants - in 36 MPCAs in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. Read the full story

Plan to grow herbs in kitchen gardens (Business Line, India, Jan. 24, 2000) 
THE Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) is preparing an action plan to promote growing of medicinal plants in one to five million kitchen home gardens in Trichy, Namakkal and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu. The action plan for the programme is expected to be ready in the next six months, and its preparation will be through a multi-stakeholder negotiations, according to Dr Darshan Shankar, Executive Director of FRLHT. Read the full story

17 American Fulbright Scholars To Begin Studies In India (United States Consulate Press Release, India, September 20, 2002)
The United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI) will welcome 17 American Fulbright student grantees for this year at an orientation program here from September 23-25, 2002.  During their course of study in India, they will be attached to leading institutions like Sanskriti Pratishthan; Delhi School of Economics; All India Institute of Medical Sciences Jamia Millia Islamia; Delhi University; Centre for Study of Developing Societies, Delhi; Banaras Hindu University; University of Hyderabad; Kala Academy, Goa; Nrityagram, Bangalore; Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore and the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions, Bangalore.  Read the full story 

And tradition lives on... (The Hindu, India, June 12, 2000)
Some of the organisations that grew out of the PPST ideology in the South are the Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems (CIKS), the Lok Swastha Parampara Samvardhan Samithi (LSPSS) and the Foundation for the Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT). Read the full story

Garden cure (The Hindu, India, Dec 13, 2003)
Indian medicines make use of plants in a big way. The challenge now is to build a bridge between modern medical systems and traditional ones. Read the full story

Grant for focus (Business Line, Mar 18, 2002)
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, The Ford Foundation's Rs 220-crore new development grant for India will be exclusively targeted towards the most disadvantaged groups such as adivasis, dalits and women. Towards this end, the grant will be given to organisations that are grassroots and community-based and farthest from the metros. Some of the grantees chosen by the organisation are Sanskriti Kendra, Surabhi Force, DHAN Foundation, DakshinaChitra, Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions, Tarun Bharat Sangh, Janvikas, North East Network, Self-Employed Women's Association, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, National Foundation for India and the India Foundation for Arts. Read the full story

TN farmers enter into pact with exporter for herb supply (Business Line, India, Oct. 3, 2002)
TO encourage farmers to earn a higher return from their land, the Research Wing of Tamil Nadu Forest Department has facilitated an agreement between them and an exporter of herb that is used in treating liver disorders. Read the full story