RECOGNITION OF AYURVEDIC HERBS BY VIRTUE OF ORGANOLEPTIC CHARACTERS

Abstract

Ayurveda is the ancient science of medicine with number of unique formulations in its ar-mory with one or many ingredients. Those who understand Ayurveda deeply state that every material, whether animate or inanimate is potentially medicinal.Understanding Ayurveda with scientific rigor requires both deep understanding of human biology and intimate knowledge of external environments. Ayurveda is based on the Pancha Mahabhuta Siddhanta, the understanding of objects of sense perception in terms of five qualities of ob-jectivity, each one arising from a particular sense. This approach is inclusive of anything with a form occupying space. The perspective can be extrapolated to all things that can be meas-ured, either qualitatively or quantitatively. This is a unique feature of Ayurveda. Even though flora, fauna and minerals/metals are all used in Ayurveda, this article only considers quality aspects of herbal ingredients used in Ayurveda industry. More than 1500 plants were identi-fied and their possible multiple uses are specified in the codified works of Ayurveda dating from 2500BC (Charaka Samhita) up to to 1900 AD (Saligrama Nighantu).These can be cat-egorised into trees, shrubs, herbs (including grass), climbers, creepers, ferns, lichen and or-chids. Many were rare, endangered, threatened or extinct even at the time of Bhava Mishra (16th Century). Today nearly 200 such medicinal plants are under different levels of threat. Industry obtains them not only from forests, but also from locations including unprotected– wasted lands, roadsides, traditionally used landscapes etc. for purposes of quality; considera-tions about such plants are of two kinds.