| US Patents having numbers
6,051,235; 6,242,012; 6,063,381; 6,224,871; 6,054,585; 5,072,382; 6,171,683;
6,159,474 have been warded for a variety of uses of spices such as ginger
, piperine , coffee substitute and aswagandha. Russians have recently
filed six patents on ‘vacha’ , a semi-aquatic herb found in India, out
of a total of 26 global patents. Herbal business estimated at billions
of dollars at the global level, it is essential that wherever scientifically
possible, Indian S&T institutions and companies also must initiate
serious R&D programs leading to good quality patents, failing which
the Indian Basumati story may happen for this sector as well as and when
export activity becomes significant. Promotional agencies like the Spices
Board must evolve appropriate pro-active policies in this direction.
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