Why in news?

• Two-day Conference on Unani Medicine for Public Health inaugurated. Organized by the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) as a part of 3rd Unani Day celebration here in New Delhi.
• To pay tribute to Hakim Ajmal Khan, whose birth anniversary is celebrated as Unani Day on 11th February every year
• Theme: ‘Unani Medicine for Public Health’

Unani Medicine:

• Ibn-e- Sina popularly known as Avicenna, one of the greatest scholars of Unani Tibb (medicine), has defined Unani Medicine as “It is the science in which we learn various states of body in health and when not in health and the means by which health is likely to be lost and when lost, is likely to be restored”.
• Unani-tibb or Unani Medicine is a form of traditional medicine practiced in Middle- East and South-Asian countries. It refers to a tradition of Graeco-Arabic medicine, which is based on the teachings of Greek physician Hippocrates and Roman physician Galen and developed into an elaborate medical system in middle age era by Arabian and Persian physicians, such as Rhazes (al-Razi), Avicenna (Ibn-e- Sina), Al-Zahrawi, and Ibn Nafis.
• It originated in Greece almost 2500 years back, which is herbo- animo- mineral in origin (Approximately 90% herbal, 4-5% animal and 5-6 % mineral).
• It is not only the original science of medicine but also a rich store house of principles and philosophies of medicine which can be of immense value to the medicine in particular and science in general.