Yet not all of them provide indigenous medical treatment in the city can be called qualified doctors as most of them lack institutional education.

In most cases these self-proclaimed kabirajs deceive the unsuspecting common mass.

"I saw how a chicken trader became a kabiraj and started giving potion," said Abdul Awal of Bailey Road. Awal said that the chicken trader brought in medicinal herbs from Chawkbazar and sold them in the form of a side business and later made it into his main means of earning.

A reputed kabiraj at Tajmahal Road in Mohammedpur claimed that he was a 1988 graduate of Government Unani and Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital when this correspondent approached him while in reality the college was established in 1989.

"The first batch passed out from this college in 1998," said Dr Md. Muslim Uddin, local consultant (AMC) World Health Organisation.

"They never attended any medical college that teach indigenous medicine and claim they learnt the skill from their forefathers," said Rokonuddin Parvez, student of Government Unani and Ayurvedic Medical College and Hospital at Mirpur.

Ispahani Manir Ahmed, another student complained people do not trust them as properly trained doctors as fake herbal medicine providers have distorted the image of qualified practitioners.

"Students at our college go through a 5-year long course. They then do internship for a year to get the Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery or Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery degrees. It is unfair if someone categorise us with untrained kabirajs," he said.

The students said two streams of indigenous methods called Unani and Ayurvedic are different only in their origin. "Unani originated in Unan province in Greece and ayurvedic originated in India," said Md Belal Hossain.

The college is supervised under "Homeo and Indigenous Medicine Project" of Directorate General of Health Services and has a panel of teachers from other medical colleges. It has 250 students in total studying in two streams.

"Students learn anatomy, physiology and other subjects that are needed for a medical degree," said Belal Hossain, another student of the college. He said the only difference between BUMS and MBBS doctors is that BUMS doctors apply herbal or indigenous medicine instead of allopathic.

Sixteen other medical colleges exist in the country offering 4-year diploma courses in unani medicine and surgery or ayurvedic medicine and surgery. Tibbia Habibia College at Bakshibazaar, NoorMajid Ayurvedic College at Armanitola in Dhaka, Momenshahi Unani Medical College in Mymensingh and Akber Ali Technical College in Comilla in the Dhaka division are colleges that offer such courses.

Chittagong hosts five such colleges while rest of them are situated in Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal and Sylhet. Bangladesh Unani and Ayurvedic Board supervise all these colleges.

Practitioners of indigenous methods are supposed to be registered with Homeo and Indigenous Medicine Project of Directorate General of Health Services. "Those who are not registered but selling medicines are deceiving the common people," said Dr. Muslim Uddin.

Presently 99 unani doctors and 79 ayurvedic doctors have registered with the directorate. Also 138 unani and 112 ayurvedic doctors doing internship are registered.