The chronological study of all medicaments from ayurveda related text we can easily understand that the beginning of pharmacy is directly concerned with the diet preparation and almost every variety of cuisine is present in the ayurveda related text. After studying the complete developmental aspect of Bhaishajya Kalpana from various samhita text, the Vedic descriptions and 18 th century Ayurveda text Bhaishjya Ratnavali we can easily classify the medicaments into following groups: -

Kritannavarga-(Food based preparations).

All the variety of Indian cuisine and diet preparations are found in ayurveda related text. The word Krita means processed in general. It means the frying of food using a little oil cumin, mustard or other species. Simply now days we call it for example fried dal vegetables/cereals.

Maansa- (meat based/or nonveg preparations).

The various samhita text describe about a variety of nonveg preparations. The pratapta maansa , sushka maans and more are variety of these preparation. Almost all Indian delicious nonveg preparations are found in Sushrut Samhita. Apart from this there are certain medicines containing the animal parts and ingredients. Like samish mahamash tail, Mushak tail are prepared by using some animal parts. Specially the kshyarogi (patient with tuberculosis) and patients with dystrophies are given the nonveg soup of mutton. This is called santarpan therapy.

Sweets –

Phenika, Pyasa, and Modaka are some example of sweets found in ayurveda. The Bhavaprakash nighantu describes much about this.

Panaka -(Squash, Juices, syrups)-

There are a variety of squash and other preparations are described in ayurveda related text.

Shushka Kalpana- (Flour type dried preparations)-

There are saktu, laja like preparations, which can be stored easily and are dried in nature.

Rasavigyan Kalpana -(Mineral based preparations)-

This is the beginning of long sustainable medicines that can be stored for a long time. All the vati , varti , gutika can be covered in this. The mercuric preparations are the basic of rasavigyan kalpana. This was the time when the metallic and mineral preparations were developed.

After having a look at the different categories of preparation we must observe the modern history of medicines so as to under stand the influence of development of pharmacy and medicaments. This is nearly the same as history of modern medicine and its development. From modern point of view the medicament developed into 3 main time durations or 3 eras. They are as follows-

The B.C. era- The Egyptian history tells us about the use of medicines and medicaments. The Egyptian king Thomaha IIIrd sent a group to collect medicines to Syria. This description is found on the sculptures on the temple of kharnak. The famous scientist Theophrastus (372 to 287) wrote a text containing 450 drugs in it. During 460 to 377 B.C. Hippo crates wrote a book about diseases. He described about the drugs peppermint (menthol), Dhatura (stromonium dhattur) and Baladona in his book.

The relevant descriptions about the use of mercury are found in 1496-1541 by Parasallous. He used mercury in treatment of syphilis.This can be correlated with that 1496 Bhavaprakash described about various disease and symptoms of “Firang” just and after words. So we can think of that the use of medicines and medicaments found are relatively comparable and are influenced by one another at that time also. Thus various descriptions are found in modern text also with development of various medicaments.

The revolutionary change in the pharmacy came the discovery of circulatory system (evolvement) by William Harvey in 1622. Then after Timothy & Quark for the first time in 1680 used the medicines intravenously. Than after the discovery of active ingredients of herbs or drugs lead to different type of medicament used.

In the 19 th century and late 18 th century the concept of biochemistry and use of animal based pharmacological chemicals and substances made a new invention that entirely changed the modern pharmacological studies. This was the discovery of penicillin that made revolutionary changes into allopathic system of medicine. The use of penicillin and other antibiotic medicines made the surgery part of modern medicines extremely successful.

This way we can observe that though starting from a like or comparatively similar conditions the ayurveda cant develop its way of action to find out how a medicine works on physiological system at modern parameters but established the pharmaceutics and therapeutics for various herbs and drugs that is strange.

It is an astonishing fact that without knowing about the lie of action of any drug how can you state that it will perform a particular action upon body. As Arjuna Treminallia Arjuna is said to be cardiac tonic and modern researches also state the cardiac stimulant properties of Arjuna. The basic guana ,veerya – prabhava theory and the vata pitta kafa diagnosis is the basic of depicting the effect of a drug in ayurveda. But the modern approach to the pharmacokinetics is not described or reveled any ways in the ayurveda related text.

This particular segment of pharmacokinetics and actions in ayurveda is a missing link and further need to be explored by various nighantu or other text to establish the use of a drug and how it works to give particular result.

We can deem that Charka used single drug system and classified different drug groups according to actions. Than he must know the line of action of the drugs but unfortunately didn’t disclosed it in any description. This is very research oriented concept to be explored.

When we study all forms of medicines that are found in Ayurveda related text from 3000 B.C. to 18 th century it is quite clear that medicines developed a lot as the primarily found medicines are generally cuisine based. And this way Ayurveda added a lot to the Indian taste. The inferences about the development of medicines are quite the same like development of civilization as from the most ancient times be it from the harrapan culture the residues found in pottery were containing the sugarcane juice like substance. After this we can see the use of sugar in its crude form also exists thus sugar cane juice was developed in to more stable form sugar. Likewise the other forms of medicines developed from the perishable from to a more stable form. This gradual development can be classified into two major time frames the pre historic times or from 3000 B.C. to1000.B.C and from 1000B.C 18 th century.

All these kalpanas found in the text from Charka Samhita up to Bhaishajya Ratnavali can be classified into two groups; they are –

1.Kalpanas from Charka Samhita to Ashtaang Samgraha, and –this time frame is supposed to be from 3000B.C. to. 500.B.C.

2.Kalpanas as in Chukradutta, Sharangdhar Samhita and Bhaishjya Ratnavali. -This time frame is from 500.B.C onwards and up to 18 th century. During this age the ayurvedic pharmacy developed a lot. And more stable and complex form of medicines are seen.

The first group has the largest number of kalpanas as compared to the second group because many of these kalpanas were compiled and some diet preparations were eliminated. The kalpanas found in the second group are refined version of those found in the first group and a specific difference between the diet preparations and medicinal preparations is seen for the first time in Chukradutta poop, pooipka, navaneet, mastu are not added while as herb and mineral combinations preparations like parpati kalpana are included.

Chukradutta is the text written in the transition period of Ayurveda as by side the dravya guna vigyana (study of herbs) was flourishing and major variety of diet preparations later added to that. The textbook Bhavaprakash written during this time is the first authentic sources of dravya guna vigyana in Ayurveda. Later on we find it that Sharangdhar Samhita the system of mineral processing i.e. parad (mercury) gandhak (sulphor) was developing and for the first time in the history of medicine the inject-able drugs or medicine Suchika bharan Rasa was prepared.

Than after 4 centuries in the 18 th century the Bhaishajya Ratnavali and Rastarangini are the two major texts of Bhaishjya Kalpana (pharmacy) are found. These two consist of the most refined versions of kalpanas from samhitas. The modern ayurvedic pharmacy is based on all these ayurvedic text.

The kalpanas (from of medicines) found in Ayurveda can be classified as-

• 1-Diet preparations
• 2-Medicinal preparations.

The first group can again be subdivided into-

Animal based and vegetable based.

Animal based group

• Maans,
• Maansara,
• Veshvaar,
• Shulya maans,
• Pratptamaans,
• Chatakandarasa,
• Chhagrakta paan…

And more are the animal preparations.

Vegetable based group has many preparations. Some examples are.

• Raaga,
• Raaga shadava,
• Kamblika,
• Takra,
• Yavagu,
• Madhu,
• Navaneet,
• Vatyamanda,
• Mand….

And more are the vegetable preparations.

Likewise the medicinal preparations can be subdivided into to

• 1-Medical procedures, and
• 2-Preperations.

The procedures included in the kalpana are internal and external

Internal like

• Basti
• Dhroomapaan,
• Ashyochatanam,
• Karnapoornam,
• Yonipoornam, and

External preparations

• Lepe
• Praseka
• Parisheka
• Sneha
• Prayaooga,
• Swedanam,
• Avagahanam,
• Pichu

The medicinal preparations can also be subdivided into two types herbal and mineral apart from this the combination. Of the two is also a kind of preparation.

Herbal Group-

• Ksheerpaak,
• Kaval,
• Madhya
• Swarasa, and more…
• Mineral Group -
• Mandoor
• Bhasma,
• Parpati,
• Parad,

Mixed Group –

• Amritikaran
• Vatis

Most of all the ayurvedic preparations are mixed now a day.

References – Various samhita texts.

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