Notes on Ayurvedic Alternates Following Plant Taxonomy

Ayurveda is an Indian system of traditional medicines as an alternative to allopathic medicine. Due to known side effects of synthetic drugs, there is an increasing demand in herbal Ayurvedic medicines. India is blessed with one of the richest flora of the world and still there are thousands of plant species that have high medicinal value. Plant resources are disappearing now at an alarming rate and enough attention is not being done to search for alternate sources. Many endemic MAPs are vanishing from the wild or getting threatened with near to extinction in the natural habitats at district and state levels. Intensive work is being carried out all over the world to find alternatives of non-available raw drugs. Acharya Vagbhata explained Abhava Pratinidhi Dravyas as; when there is unavailability of any particular drug during preparation of a compound, one should try to get another drug having similar properties. Etymology, identification, nomenclature either vernacular or scientific and classification of the respective raw drugs has been presented here with Ayurvedic alternatives and discussed with Taxonomical point of view like Rasa, Guna, Veerya, Vipaka and Prabhava vs Order, Family, Genus and Species. In the present communications few MAPs have also been suggested for the alternative use of the plants and plant parts. Selection of alternatives should be regional or disease wise in particular but in general the whole plant alternates has to need detailed study on botanical aspects and prospects, phytoconstituents, active marker compounds and pharmacological activity too.