Ayurveda
According to, the ancient indian system
of medicine, illnesses are caused by an imbalance of
the doshas (humours).
A complete cure will be possible only
by restoring the equilibrium. Medicines derived from rare herbs are
used to achieve this.
Dravya vijnan
Ayurvedic pharmacology
is termed dravya vijnan (wisdom about the substance). Ayurveda believes in
the classification of dravya into five-
Ø Earth
Ø Water
Ø Fire
Ø Air
Ø Ether
Dravya vijnan
Based on
this, the materia medica of ayurveda is also been
classified into five:
Ø Taste
(rasa),
Ø Potency
(virya),
Ø Action
(karma),
Ø Healing
property (guna) and
Ø Taste of the digestion product (vipaka).
Guna or
quality of a substance
The guna or
quality of a substance in expressed through the rasa or taste. There are
six rasas —
Sweet
(madhura),
Sour
(amla),
Salty
(lavana),
Sharp
(tikta),
Bitter
(katu) and
Astringent
(kasaya).
Each
taste is composed of two of the five elements.
Potency
(virya)
The
potency (virya) of a drug is defined as its capability to express its
property.
Sometimes,
potency is grouped in the same way as the property, but for practical reasons,
it is usually expressed in terms of hot (ushna) and cold (shita).
Prabhava
The
specific property (prabhava) distinguishes two drugs that have the same
taste, taste after digestion and potency.
This
might be due to the composition of the drug or the location in the body where
the drug acts.
Action
(karman)
Finally
the action (karman) of a drug on the body is expressed in terms of the
three doshas.
A drug
can increase or decrease the vata dosha, the pitta dosha and
the kapha dosha.
Siddha medicine
Siddha medicine ( tamiḻ-maruttuvam)
is a system of traditional medicine originating in south india.
Three
humors
It
is assumed that when the normal equilibrium of the three humors — vaadham, pittham and kabam —
is disturbed, disease is caused.
The
factors assumed to affect this equilibrium are environment, climatic
conditions, diet, physical activities, and stress.
Under
normal conditions, the ratio between vaadham, pittham,
and kabam are 4:2:1, respectively.
According
to the siddha medicine system, diet and lifestyle play a
major role in health and in curing diseases.
This
concept of the siddha medicine is termed as pathiyam and apathiyam,
which is essentially a list of "do's and don'ts".
Drugs
The drugs
used by the siddhars could be classified into three groups:
Thavaram (herbal
product),
Thadhu (inorganic
substances) and
Jangamam (animal
products).
The
drugs used in siddha medicine were classified on the basis of five
properties:
Suvai (taste),
Gunam (character),
Veeryam (potency),
Pirivu (class)
Mahimai (action).
According
to their mode of application, the siddha medicines could be
categorized into two classes:
Internal medicine
External medicine
Applications
(such as nasal, eye and ear drops), and also certain procedures
YUNANI
Yunani or unani medicine
(is the term for perso-arabic traditional medicine as practiced
in mughal india and in muslim culture in south asia and
modern day central asia. The term is derived from arabic yunan or "greek“, as
the perso-arabic system of medicine was in turn based on the
teachings of the greek physicians hippocrates and galen
The hellenistic
origin of unani medicine is still visible in its being based on the
Classical four
humors :
Ø Phlegm
Ø Blood
Ø Yellow
bile
Ø Black
bile
Unani classical
literature consists of thousands of books. According to unani medicine,
management of any disease depends upon the diagnosis of disease.
In the
diagnosis, clinical features, i.e., signs, symptoms, laboratory features
and mizaj (temperament) are important.
Any cause
and or factor is countered by quwwat-e-mudabbira-e-badan (the
power of body responsible to maintain health), the failing of which may lead to
quantitatively or qualitatively derangement of the normal equilibrium of akhlat (humors) of
body which constitute the tissues and organs.
ILMUL ADVIA(PHARMACOLOGY)
Ilmul advia(pharmacology)
is backbone of unani system of medicine. It includes evaluation of
drugs (identification,
Cultivation,
collection, storage) etc on one hand and action and uses on the other.
After diagnosing
the disease, usoole ilaj (principle of management) of disease is
determined on the basis of etiology in the following pattern:
Izalae sabab (elimination
of cause)
Tadeele akhlat (normalization
of humors)
Tadeele aza (normalization
of tissues/organs)
ALLOPATHY
Pharmacology allopathy
Pharmacology is
the study of how medicine and other things have an effect on living organisms and
change how they function. Pharmacology could also be defined as the study of
how medicine actually works. Pharmacology
Pharmacology is
the branch of biology concerned with the study
of drug action,[1] where
a drug can be broadly defined as any man-made, natural, or endogenous (from
within body) molecule which exerts a biochemical or physiological effect on the
cell, tissue, organ, or organism (sometimes the word pharmacon is
used as a term to encompass
These endogenous and exogenous bioactive species).
More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a
living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical
function. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals.
HOMOEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA
Homeopathic materia medica are
encyclopedia of therapeutic properties of each drug. These properties are ascertained
through provings also
known as homeopathic pathogenetic trials. As per samuel hahnemann in
his organon of medicine[2] §
143, homeopathic materia medica is " a collection of real,
pure, reliable
modes of
action of simple medicinal substances, a volume of book of nature" they
thus constitute a homeopathic prescribing reference guide and sources for
compiling homeopathic repertory.[3]earlier materia medicas have
details regarding the materials and methods which may be used to prepare
homeopathic medicines.
Samuel hahnemann invented
the practise of homeopathy while translating the botanical, treatise
of the materia medica by the scottish physician william cullen[4] from
english into german in 1790. Twenty pages in that work are devoted to
peruvian cinchona bark
which is used to prepare the medicine quinine.
This substance produces fever-like symptoms
while being used to cure intermittent fever or ague and this led hahnemann
to conceive the principle of similars: that like may cure like. He
went on to develop the materia medicaalong these homeopathic
lines and others then continued this work to produce great volumes of potential
ingredients.[5]
Although there are various
homeopathic materia medica, written by different authors and covering
different specialities, the term is often used to reference the total sum
of homeopathic preparations and prescribing options.
Hahnemann developed his by a system of homeopathic provings, where a substance
was ingested by the "prover" and the symptoms that the
"prover" reported were recorded in great detail. A homoeopathic materia medica may
also include accidental poisoning and some information from clinical treatment.
