Ayurveda in The New Millennium

Emerging Roles and Future Challenges

D. Suresh Kumar

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367279547
• eBook ISBN: 9781000204902
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

Ayurveda or "the sacred knowledge of longevity" has been practiced in India and many Asian countries since time immemorial. Interest in Ayurveda started growing all over the world in the late 1970s, following the Alma Ata Declaration adopted by the W.H.O. in 1978. Ayurveda in the New Millennium: Emerging Roles and Future Challenges attempts to survey the progress made in this field and to formulate a course of action to take Ayurveda through the new millennium. It also identifies the many stumbling blocks that need to be removed if Ayurveda is to cater to the needs of a wider audience.

Features:

• Newer insights into the history of Ayurveda
• Regulatory aspects of the manufacture of ayurvedic medicines
• Industrial production of traditional ayurvedic medicines
• Quality control
• The scientific rationale of single herb therapy
• Biological effects of ayurvedic formulations
• Optimization of ancient wisdom and newer knowledge
• Conservation of threatened herbs
• Nutraceuticals and cosmeceuticals from Ayurveda
• Critical view of Ayurveda in the West
• Direction for the Ayurveda renaissance

Ayurveda in the New Millennium: Emerging Roles and Future Challenges describes the strength of Ayurveda and how to usher in the Ayurveda renaissance. This book will be of interest to proponents of Ayurveda and all branches of traditional and alternative medicine. Experts from the fields of medicine, pharmacology, new drug discovery and food technology will also find it useful.

1 What We Learn from the History of Ayurveda

N.K.M. Ikbal, D. Induchoodan and D. Suresh Kumar

Contents

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Learning from Animals

1.3 Evolution of Medical Systems

1.4 India’s Gift to the World

1.4.1 Dṛḍhabala’s Mission

1.4.2 The Legacy of Vāgbhaṭa

1.5 Ayurveda and Tamil Medicine

1.6 The Puzzling Dosage Form Arka

1.7 Interaction between Ayurveda and Islamic Medicine

1.7.1 Origin of Greco-Arabic Medicine

1.7.2 Indian Influence on Greco-Arabic Medicine

1.7.3 Emergence of Ūnāni

1.8 The Influence of Ayurveda on Ūnāni

1.8.1 Development of Khamīra

1.8.2 Development of Mā’jun

1.8.3 Development of Kuṣṭā

1.8.4 Acceptance of New Plants into Formulary

1.9 How Ayurveda Benefited from Greco-Arabic Medicine

1.9.1 Pulse Examination

1.9.2 Description of New Disease Entities

1.9.2.1 Snāyukarōga

1.9.2.2 Munnātakhyārōga

1.9.2.3 Vardhma

1.9.3 Acceptance of New Plants into Ayurveda

1.9.4 Adoption of New Dosage Forms

1.9.5 Interest in Ūnāni

1.10 Some Curiosities in Ayurveda Theory

1.10.1 Prabhāva (Special Potency)

1.10.2 Gender Bias

1.10.3 Futuristic Provisions in Ayurvedic Pathogenesis

1.10.3.1 Omission of Tenets

1.10.3.2 Addition of Explanation

1.10.3.3 Introduction of New Concept

1.11 Conclusion

References

1.1 Introduction

Scientific evidence shows that disease is older than the human race. Studies of ancient fossils demonstrate that arthritis was widespread among a wide range of medium- and large-sized mammals like aardvarks, anteaters, bears and gazelles (Magner 2005). According to some scientists, many modern human infectious diseases arose during the Neolithic period or shortly afterwards due to close contact with domestic animals and their pathogens (Pearce-Duvet 2006; Wolfe et al. 2007; Trueba and Dunthorn 2012; Trueba 2014). Studies of the ancient remains of human bodies confirm that many diseases prevalent today affected ancient human populations as well. Ancient skeletons show signs of diseases like hydrocephalus, spina bifida, congenital clubfoot, Paget’s disease, osteoporosis, rickets, osteomalacia, acromegaly, microencephaly and achondroplasia (Sigerist 1951; Steinbock 1976; Campillo 1983; Priorischi 1995a).

1.2 Learning from Animals

Primitive man learned the rudiments of the healing arts from the animals around him. Nonhuman primates, and especially chimpanzees are considered to constitute “living relatives” of Homo sapiens. Their behavior can be interpreted to present an approximate view of the behavior of a common ancestor of man (Fábrega Jr 1997). Chimpanzees in the wild occasionally lick each other’s wounds, and take care of each other’s infirmities like their human counterparts. Chimpanzees have also been recorded squeezing pus from abscesses and removing foreign bodies from each other’s eyes (Priorischi 1995b).

Animals are also known to eat medicinal plants to cure diseases or to prevent their appearance. For example, Phillips-Conroy (1986) suggested that the leaves and nutritious and tasty berries of Balanites aegyptiaca were eaten by the baboon, Papio hamadryas, as a prophylactic agent against schistosomiasis. This plant was observed to be a regular part of their diet along the Awash River in Ethiopia, where schistosomiasis was very much prevalent. Similarly, chimpanzees around the Gombe Stream and Mahale Mountains National Parks, Tanzania swallow Aspilia mossambicensis and Aspilia pluriseta slowly and without chewing (Wrangham and Nishida 1983; Huffman and Wrangham 1994). A report of a chemical analysis of the plant (Rodriguez et al. 1985) and another report on the plant Lippia plicata eaten in a similar manner at Mahale confirmed the hypothesis of Wrangham and Nishida (1983).

The chimpanzees of Mahale, Tanzania are also reported to chew the pith of ethnomedically important Vernonia amygdalina, suck out and swallow the astringent, bitter-tasting juice, spitting out the fibrous remnants, when they exhibit signs of lethargy, loss of appetite and irregularity of bodily excretions. The symptoms displayed by the sick chimpanzees are the same shown by people throughout tropical Africa (Huffman and Seifu 1989).

1.3 Evolution of Medical Systems

The highly developed nervous system of man favored the recognition of changes in one’s own body and perception of behavioral changes in other individuals of the same group (Fábrega 1997). This ability, coupled with the wealth of information gleaned from the behavior of wild animals and his own experiences, formed the basis of the medical system of primitive man. In their search for food, early human beings inevitably encountered toxic or therapeutic plants, depending on the amount ingested and the physique of the person. Herbal medicine can be said to have developed alongside adventures in determining the diet, and it can be inferred that herbal medicine is an offshoot of nutrition (Conway 2011). The primitive knowledge thus gained was expanded upon by learning and social transmission (Hart 2005, 2011). This gave rise to various forms of traditional healing, broadly called folk (traditional) medicine. Traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on the beliefs and experiences indigenous to various cultures used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness (Anonymous 2013). Folk medical practices do not have a theoretical foundation and are based on empirical knowledge.

Since the days of Descartes and the Renaissance, science has taken a clear path in its analytical evaluation of nature. This approach is rooted in the assumption that complex problems can be solved by dividing them into smaller, simpler, and thus more controllable, units. As the processes are “reduced” into more basic units, this approach is also called “reductionism”. It has been the predominant paradigm of science over the past two centuries (Ahn et al. 2006). Using principles of pharmacognosy, solvent extraction of phytocompounds, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, Western medicine evaluates the efficacy of folk medical practices. Modern investigations have demonstrated the effectiveness of these forms of phytotherapy (Ramzan and Li 2015).

On the other hand, Ayurveda explains life processes using a doctrine based on the six schools of Hindu philosophy, namely, nyāya, vaiśēṣika, sāmkhya, yōga, mīmāmsa and vēdānta (Dasgupta 1997). Ayurveda states that the body is made up of pañcabhūta or the five primordial elements pṛdhvi (“earth”), ap (“water”), tējas (“fire”), vāyu (“air”) and ākāśa (“sky”). The ability of the pañcabhūta to modulate life processes under the influence of a driving force (ātma) is denoted by the collective term tridōṣa, which consists of vāta, pitta and kapha. The body is said to be in a state of health when the tridōṣa exist in a steady state. Destabilization of the tridōṣa causes the appearance of diseases. Herbs and other medicinal substances are identified in Ayurveda on the basis of five characteristics – rasa (taste), guṇa (qualities), vīrya (potency), vipāka (post-digestive taste) and prabhāva (specific action). These are the ayurvedic counterparts of pharmacological characteristics (Murthy 2017a). Ayurvedic pharmacy makes use of many herbs used in Indian cuisine. Examples are asafetida (Ferula asafoetida), black pepper (Piper nigrum), coriander (Coriandrum sativum), cumin seeds (Cuminum cyminum), curry leaves (Murraya koenigii), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia), drumstick (Moringa oleifera), fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), ginger (Zingiber officinale), mustard (Brassica juncea), inflorescence an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• About the Editor
• Contributors
• Chapter 1 What We Learn from the History of Ayurveda
• Chapter 2 Manufacture of Ayurvedic Medicines – Regulatory Aspects
• Chapter 3 Industrial Manufacture of Traditional Ayurvedic Medicines
• Chapter 4 Quality Control of Ayurvedic Medicines
• Chapter 5 Scientific Rationale for the Use of Single Herb Remedies in Ayurveda
• Chapter 6 Biological Effects of Ayurvedic Formulations
• Chapter 7 Evidence Building in Ayurveda: Generating the New and Optimizing the Old Could Be Strategic
• Chapter 8 Conservation – A Strategy to Overcome Shortages of Ayurveda Herbs
• Chapter 9 Lessons to Be Learnt from Ayurveda: Nutraceuticals and Cosmeceuticals from Ayurveda Herbs
• Chapter 10 Ayurveda in the West
• Chapter 11 Ayurveda Renaissance – Quo Vadis?
• Index