SYNERGISTIC COMBINATION OF ANCIENT INDIAN HERBAL FORMULATIONS WITH MODERN ALLOPATHIC PRESCRIPTIONS IS NEED OF THE HOUR

Abstract

Ancient Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine is believed to be one of the oldest systems of medication in the world. Use of medicinal plants and their products has been the central theme of the Ayurvedic medicaments that involved age old practices through trial and error experiments in designing potent herbal formulations of high therapeutic significance. Approximately, 25 per cent of all prescription drugs currently being utilised the world over are originally derived from plants. Herbal medicines are believed to be safe with less side-effects, cost effective and easily accessible. However, the lack of evidence-based data on therapeutic efficacy, clinical and scientific standardisation of phytochemicals of medicinal plants are some hindrances in the path of Ayurvedic herbal medicines to be globally accepted as credible mainstream medications. Though allopathic is the most preferred system of medication in the world today, the genesis of iatrogenic disorders through side effects remains to be the biggest challenge. Synthetic and semi-synthetic drugs pose greater burden to the hepatic and renal systems of the body, and in many cases even thier failure. Synergistic combination of Ayurvedic herbal formulations with allopathic drugs is an innovative practice quite capable of addressing the challenge of side effects. The review deals with the science of synergy, herb-drug interactions and their clinical validation as thrust areas of research and development in phytomedicines. Nonetheless, an urgent need causing standardisation of phytochemicals of herbal medicines in the line of allopathic drugs has been emphasised in order to suit the mindset of people, medical practitioners, and doctors of the present digital era. Hopefully, the present exposition would educate the readers to appreciate and embrace ancient Indian traditional medicine as a global credible scientific system of medications. Furthermore, predicting nanotechnologised Ayurvedic herbals as integrative medicaments of the future generation of the genomic era is not seer’s fictional exaggeration.