Importance of Pharmacovigilance in Ayurveda

Abstract

Introduction: Ayurveda has been introduced in India around 1500 BC. Ayurvedic medicines are more accepted these days as people are looking out for the natural medications. The major function of this system is to preserve the normal wellness of people and to cure the patient. These medicines, which are generally considered as safer, are now in the aura of doubt, due to some of the recent incidences of Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR), during their usage. Objective: Pharmacovigilance is an important step in Ayurveda to overcome and continuously monitor the ADR. Pharmacovigilance is the law and regulations for pharma industries, which deal with the detection, assessment, monitoring, understanding, prevention and reporting of adverse effects of medicines. Thus, this is the recurrent theme of ayurvedic pharmacology (dravyagunavigyan) and healing (chikitsa). The most important aim of pharmacovigilance, that is to enhance patient care and safety of the drug use, and as a result elevate rational drug use are recurring premise of ayurvedic pharmacology cology (dravyagunavigyan) and therapeutics (chikitsa). Methods: The data was collected from different websites and databases such as PubMed, Biomedical Sciences, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, Google Scholar, WHO, Bentham science etc. A total of 80 articles were downloaded, studied, categorized and 52 were selected to write the manuscript. Results and Conclusion: There is requirement of an appropriate post-clinical surveillance program for ayurvedic drugs based on its quality, safety, and efficacy, for public health and disease management, which is now accessible in National Pharmacovigilance Programme for ASU (Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani) drugs, Ayurveda has explained a broad hypothesis on homeopathy medicines, in relation with its usage, causal ADR, treatment and its prevention. Spontaneous reporting of ADR related to Ayurveda plays an essential role in the identification and detection of new signals and communicating novel research questions.