Quality, safety and biological screening of medicinal plants used in ayurveda & siddha and formulations for immunodeficiency : technical report / Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS)

Includes statistical tables.

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction -- Review of literature -- Ingredients -- Pharmacopoeial standards -- Results and discussion -- Standard operating procedure -- In-vitro antioxidant activity -- Results and discussion -- Raca kanti meluku --
Wound healing activity -- Amukkarac curanam -- Nellikkai ilikam -- Ran combination -- Summary and conclusion -- Single drugs -- Summary and conclusion -- Bibliography.

chief editors, Prof. Vaidya K. S. Dhiman, Prof. Dr. R.S. Ramaswamy, Dr. G. Veluchamy. Other Titles: General guidelines for drug development of ayurvedic formulations

The most prevalent users of Ayurveda and Siddha are individuals who have incurable, non-life threatening conditions that may be chronic. The second largest group of users are those struggling with chronic, potentially life-threatening diseases, such as cancer and HIV/AIDS. Both groups turn to Ayurveda and Siddha for a variety of reasons, such as to improve immune functioning, to improve overall functioning, to increase quality of life, to cope with side effects from conventional therapies, and to relive symptoms related to their illness.

In the Indian scenario, Ayurveda and Siddha could possibly contribute in thi respect by using Rasayana and Balya oushadi dravyas. The development of immune - potentiators with Ayurvedic drugs has opened an entirely becomes defenseless against the pathogens and suffers from various clinical manifestations. these manifestations are similar to that of OJOKSHAYA or BALAKSHYA patients, depicted in Ayurvedic classics. Administrating the Rasayana medicaments meant for ojovardhaka, balavardaka (immune
modulation/adoptogenc and nourishment) will promote the process of dhatu poshana and enrich ojus and thus leads to improve the vital strength and immunity or vyadhi kshamatva (non-specific immunity) that ultimately helps in managing symptoms, preventing, Ois stress and improving QoL.

Summary of research studies are :

(i) Development of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the preparation of the drugs.
(ii) Pharmacognostic features - Pharmacognostic features will be useful in testing the genuineness of drugs and checking adulterants and substitutes used in the preparation.
(iii) Physio-chemical data - To lay down pharmacopoeial standards and to decide the drugs for its authenticity, purity and efficacy as per norms of WHO guidelines, assay for inorganic ions as well as heavy metal were done.
(iv) TLC and HPTLC - TLC and HPTLC are useful analytical tool for the identification of organic compounds to obtain the fingerprints and to identify the raw drugs evolved in the formulation.
(v) Microbiology - Microbial load is used to check the quality of the drug, whether these drugs are free from microbial contamination there by deciding their safety. Anti-microbial activity is done to determine the sensitivity of microbes towards the given drugs.
(vi) Biochemistry - Biochemical studies include protein and sugar estimations.
(vii) Toxicology and pharmacology - Actute, sub-acute and chronic toxicity, anti-hepatotoxic, analgesic. anti-inflammatory, anti-diarrhoeal, antioxidant activity (in-vitro and in-vivo) and immunomodulatory activity. These studies were carried out to prove the drugs efficacy and safety.