Remarks on "Tinospora cordifolia: One plant, many roles".

Sir,

We read an article entitled “Tinospora cordifolia: One plant, many roles,” with great interest and would like to place few remarks on this.[1] The article is aptly written, informative and seems to be a product of a sincere effort of the researcher. The authors have aimed at encompassing the genetic diversity of the plant and they were also able to present the scarcity of reports on conservation strategies, propagation of the germplasm, morphological and physiological characters, and other characteristics of the plant. Unfortunately however, nothing has been discussed much about genetic diversity with special reference to Tinospora. Authors could have compiled reported studies on male and female varieties of Tinospora.[23]

It appears that the picture of the plant provided in the article is not that of Tinospora. This picture doesn’t match with any of the available official databases or any other floras.[4567] Even though the representative image could be a misprint, it is not acceptable in a leading scientific Journal of international status like the Ancient Science of Life. A large amount of published information is available on the nature and structure of active components present in Tinospora. In such a situation, it would have been more appropriate to use those identified structures to be placed in figures instead of using general terms such as alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, aliphatics, etc. Mentioning “others” and giving a structure to “others” will also not be acceptable by the scientific community.

The authors have also opined that the natural products with medicinal value are safe, which is not always true. We understand that though the medicines are of herbal origin, one need to be cautious while administering them and administration should always be under the supervision of a trained Vaidya in prescribed doses.[8]