Use of ayurvedic powder for COVID-19 fumigation in Kerala kicks off debate

Alappuzha Municipality in Kerala recently got flak for its suggestion to use an ayurvedic powder for fumigation to contain COVID-19 spread. Now, popular science activists and Ayurveda practitioners ar

Alappuzha Municipality in Kerala recently got flak for its suggestion to use an ayurvedic powder for fumigation to contain COVID-19 spread. Now, popular science activists and Ayurveda practitioners are engaged in a debate over the efficacy and scientific validity of that powder even as one more grama panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram district has conducted a similar event. The civic body in Alappuzha had urged all the 50,000 households in its jurisdiction to observe ‘Dhooma Sandhya’ at 6.30 p.m. on May 8 by fumigating their surroundings with the smoke generated from burning ‘aparajita dhooma choornam’. The municipality had earlier distributed packets of the powder to residents for free as part of COVID-19 prevention. “Aparajitha dhooma choornam could prevent all airborne infectious diseases. It is antibacterial and antiviral,” a notice had said. The Malayinkeezhu grama panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram too followed suit a couple of days later. When popular science organisations such as the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) pointed out the lack of scientific basis for this activity, Ayurveda practitioners retorted saying that two studies had been conducted to prove its efficacy. They claimed that the results of one of them was published in the journal Ancient Science of Life in 2007. In the study, ‘aparajitha dhooma choornam’ was used as a fumigation powder for creating an aseptic condition in the critical areas of production and filling in the factory of Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, Coimbatore.