Corona brings traditional remedies to the fore

Hyderabad: The Covid pandemic has brought to the fore the fact that a strong immunity is the best protection from corona virus and many other kinds of diseases. As a result, the people are rushing towards Dawasaz which is offering age-old traditional methods to boost the immune system in the body.

It must be noted that the people living in Old City have been using Unani medication for treatment of many ailments. And now in this prevailing pandemic, several age-old medications and remedies have gone viral on social media. Several traditional and home remedies are being posted on social media. Due to which the dawasaz shops are bustling with people to purchase ingredients needed for preparing medications.

According to the dawasaz, the people are usually visiting their shops to purchase Unani and Ayurvedic medications or ingredients. "Most of the people are asking for Sana-ka-patta, unani multivitamin syrups and halwa, kalongi etc. and for cold and cough there is a huge demand for compound drug 'Tiryaq-e-Azam'," said a hakeem at a dawasaz at Mallepally.

"The Unani and Ayurveda have been in practice for centuries in India. I believe that alternative medicine to allopathy has power to not only increase immunity but also prevent from virus," said Javed Ali, a sexagenarian.

The unani doctors at Government Nizamia Unani General Hospital said, "The unani medicines doesn't have any reaction or side-effects, and in this pandemic scare the people are preferring the traditional medicines to treating themselves or for prevention," said Assistant Professor and General Secretary Telangana Unani Medical Officer Association Dr Hyder Yamani.

He said the Unani Medicine is best for boosting immune system, the people are purchasing dry fruits and following age-old tips that harness the medicinal values of ingredients like sana-e-mecci or sana-ka-patta, dalachini (cinnamon), zaitun (olive), long (clove), kalongi (nigella seeds), methi (fenugreek), pudina, panjiri etc. and compound medicines like sincara which is a multivitamin syrup, lasahmina tonic which act as zinc and iron supplement, kameer-e-marvarid khas, jawari jalinoos etc. this are unani medicines which is used generally by people as a precaution," he added.

The drug Tiryaq-e-Azam is generally used as a nebuliser. This compound drug is made up of sat-e-ajwain (thymol), sat-e-kafoor (camphor), sat-e-pudina (menthol). "This is for precautionary and also for one who is suffering from cold, cough, sneezing, breathlessness etc. This can be taken as nebuliser and can also take 2-3 drops in a glass of water. This can also be used for joint pains etc. The patients with asymptomatic can also take steam for 2-4 minutes in every 2 hours," explained Dr Yamani.

Mohammed Shahid, a customer at dawasaz who was purchasing Tiryaq-e-Azam, said, "Due to change in weather people get infected with viral infections like flu, cold and cough. As a precautionary measure from infections I have come to purchase the compound drug Tiryaq. This is usually used for cold and cough," he added.