Research in Unani Medicine: Challenges and Way Forward

Unani system of medicine is one of the oldest systems of medicine and existence of this system till now itself is an evidence of validity of its principles. However, the essence of any science is progress based on a continuous quest for new knowledge through research, development and newer applications. Unani medicine too should not be exception to this. With the same objective, Government of India established a Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine to develop this system in its own theoretical framework. But researches undertaken to revive the system have not been very rewarding except for the translations of some classical texts; which at least made the literature accessible to academicians and researchers. The past as well as the current trends have failed to reap desired results primarily due to use of inappropriate protocol designs for scientific research. Ironically, ongoing research is in line of modern medicine protocol without taking into consideration, the contrasting epistemology and principles of the systems. Thus, there is a need for a paradigm shift in the research methodology for evaluating Unani medicine. In this article, author advocates the need to adopt epistemologically sensitive methods to evaluate the Unani system of