The following excerpt is taken from an interesting article in the Amrita Bazar Patrika contributed by Mr. Ganesh Karmakar, M. Sc., Biochemist. In India there are innumerable material in its vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms, which will, with Hahnemannian proving, immensely enrich the Homoeopathic Materia Medica. Will any Homoeopathic Medical Society undertake it?.
“In India large varieties of fishes are available in the rivers, the vitamin A potency of the liver oils of them is many times higher than that of the best Norwegian cod liver oils. Moreover, there is a huge consumption of these fishes in India and Bengal alone consumes nearly 40 million maunds of fish annually. The demand of fish oil in Bengal, which is about 20,000 maunds, can easily be met with this huge amount of fishes available here.
It is really regrettable that with such enormous quantities of fishes available here, there is no organised fish oil industry in Bengal. There is a big trade of dry fishes for the market of Assam, Chittagong, Burma etc. which engages about 10,000 fisher- men belonging to the Sunderbans. The importance of the liver oils is much more than that of the dry fish trade and in these days of financial difficulties the development of the fish oil industry is of absolute necessity for the poor people of Bengal.
Cursorily, this may be stated that the Madras Government is proposing to start or has already started the manufacture of this oil. With the huge consumption of fishes in Bengal enormous quantities of livers can be obtained at a very cheap price. In the Sunderbans, which is covered by networks of waterways, a big industry for fish trawling and the production of liver oils can be developed. Now a systematic investigation should be carried out by different workers on the vitamin A potency of the liver oils, its seasonal variation, medicinal properties, etc., and their results should finally be co-ordinated.
For reference, the vitamin A potency of different fishes is given below.”
I. U. per gram. Relative value in terms of cod.
Norwegian cod 800 1
Halibut 48,000 60.
Arh 45,000 56.
Dhain 38,000 47.
Shillang 22,000 27.
Boal 21,000 26.
Shole 20,000 25.
Bhetki 8,000 10.
Mrigal 5,000 6.
Shark 5,000 6.
Rohit 3,000 4.
Hilsa 2,000 3.
Chital 2,000 3.
