Description
Various herbs , minerals and animal products are used as medicine in Ayurveda. Since herbs are more easy to collect and process, majority of Ayurveda medicines are herbal formulations. Before prescribing any herb or formulation for any disease, one should know about the fundamentals like rasa, guna, veerya, vipaka, karma that are involved in the action of a drug. The knowledge of preparation of herbal formulations, dosage, time of administration etc are also important. All this is well explained under the branch of Ayurveda which deals with preparation of various formulations and is known as Bhaishajya Kalpana. Here the word Bheshaj stands for medicines and Kalpana means various preparations. The aim of Bhaishajya Kalpana (Pharmaceutical processing of herbs) is to modify the attributes of the raw herb by removing the toxic or unwanted attributes, adding advantageous attributes, concentrating and enhancing the potency of the drug, making it acceptable for consumption, making the drug easy for digestion and assimilation, masking the disagreeable taste, smell and form of the drug and prolonging the shelf life of the drug. There are five fundamental pharmaceutical preparation identified as the basic pharmaceutical preparations. All other advanced and complicated pharmaceutical procedures in Ayurveda are derived from these five basic procedures called as ‘Panchavidha Kashaya Kalpana’.
Pharmaceutical science of Ayurveda is a separate branch which deals with preparation of medicinal formulations. Ayurveda considers every material in the universe as a medicine provided it is used or processed to suit for a particular disease or person.
In this course you can get a glimpse on:
Unit I – Basic principles & philosophy of Ayurveda
Unit II – Introduction to Ayurveda Pharmaceutical science
Unit III – Methods of preparation for common formulations
Unit IV – Pathya Kalpana (wholesome diet)
