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Invited Commentary: From medicine to phytomedicine
Authors: Muhammad Iqbal, FNASc
Number of views: 378
As per the
UNESCO
Science Report (2010), India’s contribution
to research publication in the world lay around 3.7%, whereas
that of China and
USA
around 10.6% and 27.7%, respectively.
Our major contribution in scientific research relates to
Chemistry and Agricultural Science and forms 6.5% and 6.2%
of the global output, respectively. In terms of scientific
manpower, each of China,
USA
and Japan has about 20% of
the total number of researchers in the world, while India has
a 2.2% alone. For every one million of human population,
there are 1070 science researchers in China, 4663 in
USA
and
5573 in Japan, but only 137 in India. Our position in the world
race in biomedical research is especially pathetic.
The story of the progress of biomedicine is interesting.
Consequent upon new advances in biomedical research and
a progressive assimilation of subjects like biology, chemistry,
genetics, physics and physiology over the last couple of
centuries, ‘medicine’ has emerged as a young, and more
comprehensive than ever, scientific discipline. Precise and
focused intensive research in medicine (or allopathic
medicine) has made it branch into numerous specializations
and sub-specializations so as to achieve a quick and targeted
cure or alleviation of human ailments. Overspecialization,
however, carries some inherent disadvantage, as it narrows
down the work area and confines opportunities of mutual
discussion and knowledge dissipation to smaller but more
unified groups of expert. Describing this situation, Benitez-
Bribiesca (1999) stated, “generalists have vanished, yielding
to the younger breed of specialists”.
Fragmentation of knowledge causes loss of coherence and
neglects interactive effects. Although this is now a common
trend with all sciences, yet it merits greater attention when it
comes to medicine, which deals direct with human well-being.
It does not auger well when a human being is not treated as
a whole entity, and different parts of his body are supposed
to be examined and treated separately by different specialists.