012, #012 Part 1 of Tentative Musings about Single Herbs, Combination Medicines, Extracts, Extraction Methods,

Here are some tentative musings of mine, which may be amended, based on Reader Responses. Ayurveda for me is a daily subject of experimentation and studies. But, postings by me at this blog have been sparse because there are few readers. Caution and disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor. I do not intend this blog post to be a medical prescription. The discussion here is only for Educational Enlightenment purposes and to provoke thoughts.

Single Herbs, or Combination Medicines

1) Use of single herb. Merit: If we ensure Ceterus Paribus (other things remaining constant) i.e. do not change our habits before&after consumption of the herb, if we take in reasonable minimum quantities, we can measure its +or- effect on body. If there is improvement, say after 10 days, we can continue. If needed, we increase dosage+frequency. If there are severe side effects we can discontinue. Most of the herbs listed in Telugu Materia Medica published by Ronanki Appalaswami & Sons (or a similar name) in Rajahmundry, contained nearly 1000 herbs, most of them 'how to use as single herbs'. A few publics are available in public domain at archive.org. I have downloaded one such book by K.N. Nadkarni. I am editing it as a text file. A quick search in the Text file, will show two results. One for diabetes, and another for burning of stomach.

Use of multiple herbs in one medicine. Eg. VAsArishTam.

Though vasa is the principal herb in vAsArishTam, other components of vAsArishTam may have their utility/disutility. This, we have to keep in mind. 90% of the herbal medicines made/sold in India, whether they are traditional medicines or proprietary medicines, they are combinations. Even in modern Allopathic medicine, this is the position. In case of traditional Ayurvedic texts, Government of India have recognised about 80 books as 'authority/standard books' for making and selling ayurvedic medicines. For these traditional medicines, Drug licences stipulate that name of the book , based on the formula and method of which, the drug is prepared , has to be mentioned on the Label.

Question: In case of combination Ayurvedic medicines (called Yogams in traditional Ayurvedic books), is there a possibility of one herb working at cross purposes with another herb?

Ans: Most of our traditional yOgams (combination of several herbs) seem to have evolved over sevaral decades/centuries of experimentations by Ayurvedic physicians in different parts of the country. If any constituent herbs were acting at cross purposes with other constituent herbs, it might have been observed by the Ayurvedic physicians and the cross-acting herbs might have been removed.

Will combined action of all the Constituent herbs in a Combination medicine be 'different' from the separate actions of individual herbs?

Ans: It may depend on the percentage of quantity used in respect of each herb; the weightages of effectiveness of functioning may have to be assessed. Some herbs have a strong or caustic disposition; and some other herbs may be mild. If we intend that there should not be domination of one herb over another, caustic herbs may have to be used in smaller quantities and milder herbs are to be used in larger quantities. Caustic effects may be reduced by treating caustic substances with neutralizing liquids. this is called 'samskAram'. Though Ayurvedic medicine makers claim that mercury's side effects are reduced through 'samskAram' methods. However, mercury containing medicines can still continue their poisonous nature.

Throat swab comparison method appears to be inadequate

I am not satisfied with the diagnostic technique used for determinining whether Covid/Corona is positive/negative. According to Andhra Jyothi, they compare the nose/throat swab of the 'person under investigation' with the swab of the already-affected person, under a micro scope. It appears that the affected person's swab shows a special glow. If the swab under investigation also shows a similar glow, the positive. This dependence on 'eyes and vision' of the lab technician surprises me very much. Probably more accurate equipment/methods will be coming.

After reading about this comparison method I got a feeling that if virus is just a protein with capability to replicate, and without any ability to metabolise anything, I get an impression that A VIRUS IS JUST A FOOD PARTICLE (PROTEIN PARTICLE). We know that all our pulses-lentils are dicotyledonous seeds with latent-life in them, a virus-protein just becomes a nano size seed particle. This food particle of seed/protein can arise even from body's digestive and blood-circulatory processes.

Coming to more practical side of things, in the context of Corona virus:--

The dry cough, breathing problem, fever which every TV Channel and every doctor, every Govt. Official is canvassing as symptoms, --all these correspond to our traditional ailment of Asthma, COPD upper and lower. In old Ayurvedic texts, these conditions may fall under 'svAsa--kAsa'. The jpg images I am attaching are screenshots from one book called Sargna dhara samhita. (Etypmology for sArngnadhara= sarngna is lotus. dhara=bearing. One who has a lotus/tulip in his hand. Samhita is treatise. SArngna dhara is believed to be A Telugu man). Fir image 'puTapAka' describes how a puTa pAka is made. The second image shows how 'kanTakAri' puTa pAka is made. Kantakari is a herb. Similarly in the same image, we can find how to make vibhItaki puTapAka. (tAnikAya puTapAkam). You will find that both of these are, by and large single herb. Useful for Ceterus Paribus testing.

Verse in English Script, from Sarngnadhara Samhita, about method of preparation of PUTA PAKA (pronunciation: puTa pAka)

--:puTapAka vidhi:--
puTa pAkasya mAtrEyam lepasya angAra varNatA,
lEpamcha dvyanguLam sthUlam kuryAd dvA-angushTha mAtrakam,
kAsmarI vaTajambva Adi patrair vEshTanam uttamam,
pala mAtra rasO grAhyaha karsha mAtram madhu kshipEt,
kalka chUrNa dravAdi astu dEyAs svarasa avad udbhavai.

English GistThe substances which are to be made into a puTa pAkam, are to be ground into a fine paste;
--the paste is to be wrapped into any of the leaves of gummuDu (pumpkin), or marri (Banyan i.e. wider tree Ficus Bengalensis leaves) , or nErEDu (jamoon),
--over the leaf-reel-pack, mud is to be applied in one or two inch (thumb width=anguShTham) thickness;
--is to be heated upto red color in a kiln (puTham is heating a substance in a type of kiln)
--thereafter, the pack is to be removed from the puTham, the mud and leaves are unpacked, the ball-bolus inside is to be pierced to extract its juice
--that juice of about one palam weight (eight tolas of 11.66gms or about 93 grams) is to be taken in.
--Alternatively dried medical substances can be mixed with water, ground into paste, and heated in 'puTham'.
--Medical Substances suggested in different YOgAs (yoga= union, combination. Hence Combination Medicines instead of single herbs) can be heated in puThams and juice consumed above, 1 palam i.e. about 93 grams.
--if needed half palam i.e. about 46 grams of honey can be added before consumption.

ENGLISH SCRIPT FOR THE SECOND JPG PICTURE OF KANTAKARI or BIBHITAKI PUTHA-PAKAM

--:kanTakAri puTha pAkam for cough and difficult respiration (kAsa svAsa):--
pachEt kshudrAnga pancAngAn puTapAkEna tad rasaha
pippaLi cUrNa samyuktaha kAsa SvAsa kafa apaha.

The VakuDu plant (Sanskrit: kanTakAri, Botanical name: Solanum Xanthocarpum, Solanum surattense, Yellow-fruit-night shade) is to be ground into powder/paste, heated into puTha pAkam as above, juice is to be pierced from it, and is to be taken in with powder of pippaLi (Piper Longum i.e. long pepper), for eradication of cough, difficult respiration, and phlegm.

---:puTha pAkam of bibhItaki fruit, for cough and difficult breathing:-- Verse in Roman Script: vibhItaka phalam kinchit ghritEna abhyajya lEpayEt,
gO dhuma pishTEna angArair vipacEt puTa pAkavat
tataha pakvam samudhdhritya tvacham tasyam ubhE khipEt,
kAsa SvAsa pratisyAya svarabhangAn jayet tataha.

ENGLISH GIST:
--A little clarified butter (ghee) is to be applied on the vibhItaki (also spelt as bibhItaki. Telugu: tAnikAya) fruit (Botanical name: Terminalia bellirica) .
--Over it (over clarified butter layer), wheat flour is to be layered.
--thereafter puThapAkam is to be done as explained earlier (i.e. using wrapper-round-reel-pack of banian/jamoon/pumpkin leaves
--over it a layer of mud of one/two inch thickness.)
After the heating is done, unpacking is done, the seed in the Terminalia fruit is removed, only bark is to be chewed. Then cough, difficult respiration, cold, sore-throat etc. will go.

Baidyanath does not make Kantakari PutapAka. However, they have kanTakAri avalEha (i.e. paste/gel which can be licked), and kanTakAri ghrita (a mix of KanTakAri and ghee).

bibhItaki (tAnikAya) puTapaka is apparently not available with Baidyanath or Dabur or similar makers. There are other preparations of bibhItaki which can be used.

Ayurvedic herbal preparations which do not contain mercury, metals, sulphur can either be used as single herbs or combination medicines. Real problem is commercial availability as tablets, powders, liquids, pastes.

Today, there is much hullabaloo about hydroxy chloroquine and azitromycine. European countries are using them without any double blind tests or other standard clinical trials. Though Covid Corona might not have been identified as Covid Corona, our Ayurvedic Physicians over centuries (say 4000 years) might have experiened similar viruses not specifically called covid-corona. All such respiratory pulmonary problems may come under kAsa svAsa. Then Ayurvedic medicines with the exception of mercury/metals/sulphur/ammonium chloride etc. can be tried for the pulmonary problems of void also.

Back to use of extracts:-- Extracts will be used where percentages are important. For example, banana contains potassium. Potatos also contain potassium. Then we can eat banana fruit or potatoes to get potassium. Potatos when fried as chips may lose their potassium. This can also happen to bananas when they are made into banana chips.

There is one subject called 'phytochemistry'. Today's phytochemistry, unfortunately is not adequate for our purpose. E.g. Tea contains Tanin. What is this Tanin? It is to be further split into chemical elements and at least into inorganic chemical compounds. It will be easier to assess medical effects if chemical elements and compounds are known, rather than as hydrocarbons, amino acids. Our 'extracting' processes have to EVOLVE into chemical analyses and NOT SYNTHESES.

To continue in more depth.