No scientific proof of fish medicine for asthma, says P M Bhargava

Calling the fish medicine offered by Bathini Harinath Goud brothers during Mrigasira Karthe a sham, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology founder P M Bhargava has asked the Telangana government to avoid offering concessions to them.

Talking to media along with the office bearers of Jana Vignana Vedika and Jana Chaitanya Vedika which work to create public awareness on the efficacy of fish medicine- Bhargava said there is no scientific evidence to prove fish medicine could help asthma patients.

“We sent the samples (of the medicine) in 2005 to the laboratories with the help of the high court. When the results (that they had no special curative ingredients) came, the Bathini brothers stopped calling it medicine and started calling it ‘prasad’,” Bhargava said.  The scientist –recently in the news for returning his  Padma Vibhushan award to protest over growing intolerance in the country- said it was his “civic duty” to make people understand those claiming cures for asthma, diabetes and Alzheimer’s are misleading them since there are no known cures for those afflictions. Stressing on the need to thoroughly investigate fish medicine, Bhargava pointed out that several herb-based medicines have been accepted as regular medicines as they have qualities to cure the targeted diseases. “It is absurd to call fish medicine a tradition of the region,” he said. “even unacceptable systems like Banamati and Devadasi are considered traditional. Can we encourage them?”

Harinath Goud, who is preparing to distribute fish medicine on June 8 at the Nampally exhibition grounds here, refused to comment on Bhargava’s observations.

“The bottomline is that thousands of people from all over the country come here and they believe that the medicine which I inherited from my ancestors actually works,” he said.
DH News Service