It is asserted that Ayurveda knowledge allows drug researchers to start from time-tested and safe botanical material. The best example of bioprospecting using traditional knowledge is reserpine, the anti-hypertensive alkaloid from R. serpentina, which became available as a result of work carried out by CIBA in India in close collaboration with Ayurveda experts. The normal drug discovery course of ‘laboratory to clinics’ in this case actually becomes from ‘clinics to laboratories’.