Knowledge origin, innovations and growth in ayurvedic bioprospection: references from Kerala

The recent manufacturing interest in traditional medical systems and biodiversity sectorsis directly related to the profitable innovations that traditional knowledge can generate. Inthis context, this study attempts to understand the nature of knowledge origin andinnovative process in the drug discovery process in both traditional knowledge andtextual ayurveda based drugs. The analysis has been broadly contextualized in thepremise that the traditional knowledge innovations are non-additive in character due tothe lack of proper incentive structure available with knowledge holder, and hence thisknowledge, which largely serve as a tacit raw material for bio-prospection involves hugecosts in internalizing in to the production. While the firms have the option of cheap costdrug discovery from ayurvedic public knowledge, they are less incentivized to go formajor bioprospection.