Afghan crisis hits herbal, unani stores hard

Hyderabad: The current crisis in Afghanistan has pushed the manufacturers of herbal and unani medicines into a difficult situation as the import of herbs has stopped and whatever little is available is being sold at exorbitant rates.

According to unani pharmacists, they get raw materials like mulethi (licorice), wormwood, jujube, akarkara (Anacyclus pyrethrum), dried plum, zaffron, raw hing (asafoetida), pure honey, solo garlic from Afghanistan.

Talking to The Hans India, a pharmacist said 'hing' is used in making digestive syrups and tablets. "These days medicine for cough and cold is high in demand. Raw materials used for making it are pure honey and mulethi (licorice) which has become scarce due to crisis in Afghanistan," he said.

Now they will have to fall back on honey and mulethi from Punjab, which is of lesser quality. "Generally, we import these herbal materials from Islamic countries," a dealer in Tolichowki said.

Another manufacturer said that the developments in Afghanistan have upset him. He said the stocks he has will not last long and if the situation there does not stabilise, there would be disruption of the supplies.

Medicine makers do not buy directly from Afghanistan. They source the material from the herbal medicine pharmacists like Saif Unani Pharmacy, Hameedia Unani Pharmacy among others. "The pharmacies get their supplies from Afghanistan," said Mohammad Ayez Ahmed, a staff at Hakeem MA Wahab Dawasaz (Herbal Medicine Store) at Tolichowki.

Due to the current pandemic, prices of each and every herbal medicine have seen an upward trend by around 5% to 8 %. "If the situation does not improve another steep price hike and even some shortage cannot be ruled out. We hope that the situation would come under control in a few weeks, so that we don't face any hardship," said Aslam Ali, a staff at a herbal store in Nampally.