Foundation of Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE) has released a special scientific report to show that brinjal is not used in medicines.
The book, authored by Prof. C Kameswara Rao, head FBAE Foundation, refutes the misleading claims of those opposing that Bt brinjal was unsafe for consumption.
Prof Rao said that contrary to what was being propagated, brinjal is not used in any Indian systems of medicine and hence the claim that Bt brinjal would affect brinjal’s use in Indian medicine was aimed at exploiting the lack of scientific awareness of the issue. Brinjal belongs to the botanical group Solanum and while some wild species of it are used in medicines, raw brinjal is not.
“While there was no appropriate and substantial documentation to justify the claim, that Bt brinjal would jeopardize the use of brinjal in Indian systems of medicine, in the Ministry of Environment & Forests Bt brinjal moratorium document (MD) of February 9, 2010 or elsewhere, the assertion has clouded public mind,” said Prof Rao while releasing the report which provides a detailed survey of authentic literature on the medicinal uses of brinjal and other species of Solanum, in Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy.
The Foundation along with a team of leading agri-scientists in the country asserted that Bt brinjal was safe for human consumption and requested the Prime Minister to intervene urgently to ensure that the moratorium on commercial production of Bt brinjal was immediately lifted.
Prof Rao said that “Brinjal, raw or processed, is not in use in any of the Indian systems of medicine. While every system indicated certain negative effects of brinjal including its allergenic potential, the Siddha system actually prohibits its consumption in certain disease conditions.”
The assumption that the transgenic Bt gene affects synergy in medicine using brinjal is inaccurate and irrelevant when brinjal is not used in medicine. The stray mention of some insignificant uses of brinjal as medicine was probably based on the properties of brinjal available centuries ago when the texts of classical medicine were compiled. These minor uses are no longer relevant as the present day cultivated brinjal has undergone extensive genetic modification in conventional breeding. In effect, cooked Bt brinjal is safe for consumption, and Bt brinjal does not pose any threat to the use of non-Bt brinjal in medicine, as the scope for gene flow from Bt brinjal to non-Bt brinjal is almost non-existent.
Scientists said that the moratorium on Bt brinjal was strongly influenced by those opposed to agricultural biotechnology than by credible, critical, and balanced scientific judgment of technologists and biosecurity experts on Bt Brinjal, which is accepted by Philippines to process their Bt brinjal varieties to be released next year.
“The government's decision of imposing a moratorium on Bt brinjal seriously affected research and development activities in the country's agricultural biotechnology sector. The moratorium has created a regulatory uncertainty on the development of all genetically engineered crops in the country. In a year and a half, there has been no palpable, effective and time bound effort to lift the moratorium on Bt brinjal or to resolve the uncertainties caused by the moratorium,” said Prof Rao.
Dr T M Majunath, Consultant-Agricultural Biotechnology said, “Considering that the product efficacy, biosafety and environmental safety of Bt brinjal were evaluated for over seven years, as per international standards, involving over 200 scientists and more than a dozen public and private sector research institutions, Bt Brinjal should be commercially released without further delay.”
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