The allopathic system of medicine that treats symptoms of diseases using drugs came into existence in the 19th century. Before that, traditional medicines were common in many Asian countries, including India. A common drawback of allopathic medications is their undesired side effects caused by the adverse reactions of specific drug compounds with parts of our body. This has now rekindled interests among scientists in many traditional forms of medicine which are known to have no side effects.

Banana, a nutritionally-rich, delicious fruit, is a widely-cultivated crop across the world and is a staple diet of people living in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Due to pests and diseases, only 13% of the global production is traded, and often, farmers in India experience severe loss due to fusarium wilt or Panama disease. A novel innovation now aims to change the fortunes of banana growers by helping them detect diseases and pests with their smartphone. In a recent study, researchers from the USA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia and India have developed a banana pest detection app powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

This study, by researchers from Hungary, India, France and the USA, explored the potential of some new chemical compounds as therapeutic agents against tuberculosis. Such compounds represent new possibilities for further anti-TB drug development.

A new study by researchers at the WHO attempts to throw some insight into how many boys and girls, between the ages of 11-17 years, are physically active across the globe. The study, published in the journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, analysed data from 1.6 million students in that age group during the years 2001-2016. It found that most adolescent boys and girls—four in five—aren’t as physically active as they ought to be in 2016.

Sometime in the middle of October each year, the Bomrr clan in Nagaland rush to the caves in Mimi village. With a good stock of burning firewood, men and women are ready for the bat harvest festival—an annual ritual where anywhere between 7,000 to 25,000 bats are suffocated or smashed to their deaths. These bats, the clan believes, have medicinal properties and can cure diseases like diarrhoea and body ache, and increase vigour. Now, a new study has shown that these bats, rather than being a cure to diseases, carry deadly filoviruses that could infect humans.

Study shows almost 40% South Asians and 60% Sub-saharan Africans cannot afford the EAT-Lancet diet.

Researchers estimate that half of these deaths, resulting in India and China, can be prevented.

In 2018, around 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis (TB) — an infectious disease that mainly affects the lungs. A major obstacle in the clinical treatment of TB is the long therapy time required to clear the infection. An infected patient needs to take antibiotics for over 6 to 9 months to prevent a relapse — a duration so long that many discontinue their medications.

In a recent study, researchers from Sai Nath University, Ranchi, and Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, set out to quantify the impacts of natural radioactivity on the surrounding environment in the Nilgiris of Tamil Nadu. Their findings have been published in the Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences.

A recent assessment by the World Meteorological Organisation has declared heat waves as the deadliest extreme weather event in the years 2015–2019, causing more than 8,900 deaths globally. In May 2015, temperatures crossed 45°C in Odisha and Telangana in the fifth deadliest heat wave in history, with a death toll of 2,300. With 30% of the global population living in regions susceptible to 20 heat wave days in a year and the rising global temperatures, one can conclude that its toll will only increase in the years to come. In such situations, warnings about impending heat waves can be lifesavers. However, very few studies have focused on such a prediction system to date, with none looking at real-time predictions. Now, researchers have developed a prediction system to predict heat waves a couple of weeks in advance. The study, funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, was published in the journal Scientific Reports.