KATHMANDU, JUNE 7

A book titled 'Nepali Raithane Jadibuti', penned by Narayan Ghimrie, a food and medicine expert working in Canada for over a decade, was released in Kathmandu yesterday.

General Secretary of Nepali Congress and former minister of Health Gagan Thapa released the book amidst a function. The book is about medicinal herbs of Nepal and their value.

The positive effects of Nepali indigenous plants, such as titepati, dhurseli, khirro, kush, timur (black pepper), moringa, and simal are described vividly in the book.

The value of such plants for human health is mentioned in the book.

Releasing the book, former minister Thapa said in view of the potential of medicinal herbs in Nepal, we could utilise this opportunity to reduce the trade loss.

He reminded that the government had announced the 'Prime Minister Nepali Product and Consumption Promotion programme' in the current budget. 'Yoga, ayurved, indigenous knowledge and medicinal plants should be linked to tourism,' Thapa viewed.

Similarly, a public health researcher Amod Pokharel commented that the book had tremendous information about Nepal's original plants. 'If clinical trial was done on Nepal's indigenous plants, Nepal could reap huge benefit from it,' he argued.

Author Ghimire said that a long rigorous research was imperative on Nepali medicinal herbs. Policy should be made on consumption of Nepali herbs and Nepal should be made a centre of food research, he added.

A version of this article appears in the print on June 8, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.