Researchers at Center for Scientific and Industrial Research-Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) in Hyderabad have found scientific evidences for the ancient ayurvedic medicine, through genome analysis.

Practice of ayurvedic medicine is coming since ages in India, but its practice has been sidelined with the advent of advanced allopathic system of medicine. Lack of research and constant initiatives to find new drugs in Ayruveda has left it behind. Now with CCMB taking a lead and initiating a successful research correlating the Ayurvedic Prakriti with genetic diversity, there is new hope that the ayruvedic system of medicine will flourish globally in the coming days.

“For the first time we could successfully link India’s ancient wisdom with modern sciences. Our scientists were able to discover that the ‘dosha prakriti’ or phenotypic classification of traditional Indian medicine has indeed a genetic basis,” said Ch. Mohan Rao, director of CCMB.

Explaining further Mohan Rao said CCMB research team took up the challenge to find out the correlation between Ayurvedic Prakriti classification and genetic diversity. “Interestingly, although we had individuals from different ancestries and communities, they all got classified into these three classifications. This was a sign that there was real science behind this ayurvedic classification,” he said.

While the Chinese traditional medicines has got its worldwide recognition with a noble price, the Indian ayruvedic medicine is still lagging behind due to no scientific proof. But with this breakthrough development from CCMB this new discovery will be beneficial to both ayurvedic and allopathic practitioners. This work will eventually lead to establishing Ayurveda on a sound footing along with modern medicine.

Ayurveda is an ancient medical system. Its documented history dates back to 1,500 BC and had been in practice for a few thousand years much earlier. Ayurvedic physicians believe that there are three doshas - Vata (related to space and air), Pitta (fire and water) and Kapha (water and earth). Each individual would have different levels of these doshas, hence the diversities. “Whether such phenotypic classification has any molecular basis has been a matter of debate. A few groups had found some correlation when they looked at one or two specific genes. However, the association with Prakriti classification was lacking,” Rao said.

For the study, the researchers recruited 3,416 normal healthy males aged between 20 and 40 years. Ayurvedic physicians screened them, and they were also screened by software called AyuSoft, developed by C-DAC. Their blood samples were collected, isolation of DNA and genomic studies were carried out.