Proponents of Ayurveda with great pride declare that everything animate and inanimate are potentially medicinal (Ashtangahrudaya Sutram).
To say this with scientific rigour needs a great deal of understanding of human biology and intimate knowledge of external environment. Ayurveda based on ‘Panchamaha bhooth sidhantha’ (philosophy based on five basic state of elements) comprehends everything which occupies space and has a form . This perspective can be extrapolated to all beings in a measurable way. This measurement can be qualitative and quantitative. This is the unique feature of Ayurveda.
The concept of Rasa (taste) guna ( attributes) Veerya ( therapeutic effect) and Vipaka (post digestive effect of the medicine as a whole) are qualitative. When this logic of drug action based on the above principles does not work, Ayurveda proposes the principle of ‘ Prabhava’ which means unpredictable action of a drug which is not based on a substance’s morphology or internal attributes.
The materials are meticulously studied by the intellectuals of yore based on the Prakruthi Sama samavayarabdha principle for the most commonly used materials. Those which do not fall under this category are put under Vkruthi Vishama Samavayarabdha, This means unpredictable action not consistent with their guna and Rasa. So the science which deals with action of drugs in human body has become sacrosanct and static. This is because it allows only some addition and no deletion. So the science that deals with medicinal properties of materials have become stagnant. Though this is the limit of Ayurveda , it gives a clear boundary to the physicians on the use of materials as medicine. This limitations can be broken with sound understanding of the basic principles of Ayurveda.
Even though flora, fauna and minerals / metals are used in Ayurveda, this article scratches only on the quality aspect of herbal ingredients used by the Ayurveda industry. There are around 2100 plants recorded and used in the codified works of Ayurveda since 2500 BC ( Charaka Samhita) till 1900 AD ( Shaligrama nighandu).
These plants can be categorized into trees, shrubs, herbs ( including grass ) climbers, creepers and some ferns, lichens and orchids.
Many of them were rare endangered, threatened or extinct even at the time of Bhava prakasha (16th century ) and today nearly 200 medicinal plants are under different levels of threat category.
The end -user get these plants from unprotected and unregulated areas not only from the forest, but also from the unused land, waste land and wasted lands, roadsides and traditionally protected landscapes etc.
The quality aspect of these medicinal plants can be divided into two types: One is the morphology -rooted specification of the plant.
For Eg:- Bala means either Sida retusa or Sida cordifolia . There need not be necessarily a one-to-one co-relation of the plant. There can be more than one botanical source for a plant. For e.g.....: Centella asiatica and Bacopa monerra are accepted as Brahmi. Likewise Vishnukranthi also has more than two botanical sources.The starting point of the quality control is the morphological or botanical equation of the same plant but the quality of the plant is not necessarily depend on its morphology.
The second aspect of quality control of herbal ingredients is as follows. The place of origin, the way it is cultivated ( monoculture crop or multiculture), the time of collection, season of collection and the way it is collected and stored also plays a important role in the attributes of the plant quality.
Each of the above aspects have to be studied for individual plants and an objective standard has to be evolved. For e.g.: In many of the plants, especially where roots and stems are used the availability of the secondary metabolites that determines its therapeutic activity are important. This is an area which needs considerable explanation. Many plants grown with great care and nourishment are not been seen to be effective because of lack of necessary ‘Veeryam’ in it. The ‘Veeryam’ can be the secondary metabolites formed in the plant out of stress and starvation.
Ayurveda recommends not to collect plants during and immediately after rainy season. This is to help the “Veeryam” not to get diluted. Certain plants especially root tubers have to be below the earth for a specific period before it is collected. This will ensure better therapeutic activity. Certain plants material looses its activity by merely exposing it to sunlight likeTurmeric . Some plants need to be processed with certain materials for its full efficacy ( Eg.Piper Longum in milk). Certain materials become more effective when used together like Sali parni and Prushni parni.
Such nuances in Ayurveda has to be studied more deeply to achieve the gold standards of quality assurance in herbal ingredients.HPLC and HPTLC etc will not suffice the quality standards for herbal ingredients. However, it can best be a starting point.
“Thadeva yuktam bhaishajyam yadarogyaya kalpathe”: (Charaka) Medicine is that which brings in health and longevity. The pure medicine is the one which while eliminating a disease should not become even a remote cause for another disease. “Suddhasthu Shamayet na cha kopayet:”(Charaka).
There are four basic attributes given to an ideal “oushadham” (medicine) which includes both an ingredient of a whole preparation as well as a poly constituent formulation.
They are 1. “Bahu kalpam” which can be used in varieties of dosage forms like decoction and oils. 2. “Bahugunam” means having more than one attribute like Tinospora cordifolia which has multi purpose uses. 3. ‘Sampannam’ is their natural attributes which is critical for quality control. To make sure that the sampannatha is present in herbal ingredients many attributes are to be assessed. 4. ‘Yogyata’ means appropriation of that medicine in a given context. Present day modern instrumentation based standardization cannot measure ‘sampannatha’. This open ups the need of Ayurveda based methodology for quality control. Bringing down those above mentioned variables to a measurable level is a challenge. Then only
one can think about consistent quality of herbal ingredients for Ayurveda preparations.
The author is Joint, Director (Traditional System of Medicine),
Foundation of Revitalization of Local Health
Traditions (FRLHT).