1.1. General
The World Health Organization defines traditional medicine as "the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness" .India has the unique distinction of having six recognized systems of traditional medicine, viz. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Yoga, Naturopathy and Homoeopathy. Of these, Ayurveda is the oldest and the most popular to this day. Under the traditional system of medicine, alternative medicines are derived from herbs, minerals, and organic matter, while for the preparation of herbal …show more content…
Typical formulations for fever include herbs like parpatadi quath, kirat-tikatadi quath. The polyherbal formulations have been in use since centuries. (RastogiRP n.d.) Drug formulation in Ayurveda can involve use of a single drug or use of more than one drugs, known as polypharmacy or polyherbalism; i.e the combining of several medicinal herbs to achieve extra therapeutic effectiveness. The active phytochemical constituents of individual plants usually are present in minute amounts and almost always, they are insufficient to achieve the desirable therapeutic effects. Studies have revealed that plants of varying potency when combined may theoretically produce a greater result, as compared to individual use of the plant and also the sum of their individual effects. This phenomenon of positive herb-herb interaction is known as synergism. In traditional medicine whole plants or mixtures of plants are used rather than isolated compounds. There is evidence that crude plant extracts often have greater in vitro or/and in vivo antiplasmodial activity than isolated constituents at an equivalent
The World Health Organization defines traditional medicine as "the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness" .India has the unique distinction of having six recognized systems of traditional medicine, viz. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Yoga, Naturopathy and Homoeopathy. Of these, Ayurveda is the oldest and the most popular to this day. Under the traditional system of medicine, alternative medicines are derived from herbs, minerals, and organic matter, while for the preparation of herbal …show more content…
Typical formulations for fever include herbs like parpatadi quath, kirat-tikatadi quath. The polyherbal formulations have been in use since centuries. (RastogiRP n.d.) Drug formulation in Ayurveda can involve use of a single drug or use of more than one drugs, known as polypharmacy or polyherbalism; i.e the combining of several medicinal herbs to achieve extra therapeutic effectiveness. The active phytochemical constituents of individual plants usually are present in minute amounts and almost always, they are insufficient to achieve the desirable therapeutic effects. Studies have revealed that plants of varying potency when combined may theoretically produce a greater result, as compared to individual use of the plant and also the sum of their individual effects. This phenomenon of positive herb-herb interaction is known as synergism. In traditional medicine whole plants or mixtures of plants are used rather than isolated compounds. There is evidence that crude plant extracts often have greater in vitro or/and in vivo antiplasmodial activity than isolated constituents at an equivalent