The recorded history of Indian medi...

The recorded history of Indian medicine can be divided into four phases. The first, or Vedic Phase, dates from approximately 1200 to 800 BC Medicinal information from this period consists mainly of curative chants and healing intimations in the Athar-vaveda and the Rigveda, sum of two units religious tomes which reveal a "magico-religious" orientation.

The other classical phase is associated with the appearance of the first Sanskrit medical treatises, the Caraka and the Sushruta Samhitas, which are consideration to date from a scarcely any centuries before to a not many centuries after the beginning of the Christian era.

"This period includes all posterior medical treatises dating from before the Muslim invasions of India at the beginning of the 11th hundred for these works tend to come next the earlier classical compilations closely and provide the basis of traditional Ayurveda," according to Kenneth Zysk PhD in his instructive chapter entitled "Traditional Ayurveda," which appears in the newly released textbook Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The third, or syncretic phase, is marked from clear borrowings from Islamic (Unani), southerly Indian Siddha, and other nonclassical connected views Historians have said that Bhavaprakasha's 16th hundred work, Bhavaprakasha, reveals these influences, which included regards to diagnosis by examination of urine and vibration It is suggested that this phase lasted from the Muslim winnings to the modern era.

The last phase can be identified, Zysk says, on fundamental adaptation of classical Ayurveda to "the world of fresh science and technology, including quantum physics, mind-body science, an advanced biomedical science."

With Ayurveda, the world is in your hands

From its earliest beginnings in the Vedic era, Indian medicine has always held that there is sound fundamental link between the microcosm (miniature universe) and the macrocosm (big universe).

We human beings, then, are "minute representations of the universe, and contain within us everything that makes up the surrounding world," remarks Kenneth Zysk PhD "Comprehending the world is crucial to comprehending the human and reciprocally understanding the human is necessary to understanding the world."

Ayurvedic medicine's basis in culinary tradition

common way of keeping our individual worlds in balance is to hold fast in mind that Ayurveda tenders a "rich store of natural medicines that have been garnered tested, and recorded in medical treatises from ancient times," Zysk points out

The tradition of gathering and preserving information about medicinal-botanical formulations in Nighantus continues today, adds Zysk In fact, "the most numerous traditional source of Ayurvedic medicine is the kitchen; it [being] likely that, at an early stage of its disentanglement Indian medical and culinary traditions worked hand-in-hand."

It is this actual close relationship between food and medicine that l to Ayurveda classifying diets and medicinal botanicals into Rasa (taste by way of the tongue, such as: sweet, sour, saline, cutting bitter, or astringent), Virya (potency divided into four pairs: hot-cold unctuous-dry, heavy-light, and dull-sharp), and Vipaka (postdigestive taste, as it was as sweet, sour, and pungent)

Botanical with a mystical namesake emerged

the same botanical which has been gaining recognition at good Western universities (such as Columbia) and hospitals (such as novel York City's Beth Israel Hospital), is Terminalia arjuna.

Traditional uses. While its name is etymoned in Indian mythology (e.g., Prince Arjuna of the great Indian epic, Mahabharata) and cosmology (eg the Arjun tree's association with Svati, a star of the zodiac), the physical origins of this woody tree (fam. Combretaceae) are set throughout India, especially near rivers and streams.

In 1869 JL Stewart reported, in his work Punjab Plants, that in the Kanga region of Punjab, the bark of the Arjun tree was used to antidote sores. There is considerably more to this botanical than this, however. Formulations using T arjuna abound, especially those associated with urinary disorders, gynecological conditions (such as leukorrhea), liver disorders, fractured/broken bone and dermatological complaints.

Clinical use for cardiac disease. T arjuna's heart health-promoting abilities can be best illustrated at the fact that, of E2 distinct formulations discussed in the literature between 1938 and 1985 16 relate to cardiac disease, or Hrig-Roga, the Ayurvedic season for cardiovascular diseases.

An article in Indian put drugs intos (1987) by S. Dwivedi, et al., raise that the botanical increased production of prostaglandin E2 in an animal pattern It is thought that this emblem of prostaglandin plays a crucial part in the prevention of cardiovascular disease at increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle.

T arjuna was also base to decrease the heart rate and relax the heart muscle in experimental conditions, according to an analysis published in 1990 at R.D. Srivastava, et al., which appeared in Indian medicines "In view of these results" the authors infer "the extracts under investigation merit further studies in hypertensive and/or ischemic heart disease patients."