Time to acknowledge insight lying in ancient Ayurvedic texts: Acharya Balkrishna
PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Haridwar
Stating that the research done by the Patanjali scientists on the curative qualities lying in the stem of Tinospora cordifolia- commonly referred to as Giloy- has been published in the Springer Nature’s research journal, BMC Plant Biology, Acharya Balkrishna said that the efficacy of the Ayurvedic knowledge is being confirmed repeatedly across the world. “So it is the time when we must return to Nature, to begin to see our scriptures not as superstitions, but as expressions of profound scientific insights waiting to be unveiled,” he stressed. He further said that Giloy collected during the rainy season is more medicinally effective. “In this research, chemical analysis of Giloy was done through UHPLC-PDA and HPTLC techniques which confirmed the fact that Giloy collected in the rainy season is more effective with high medicinal qualities,” he added.
Invoking the nature-related festivals like Harela which are celebrated only during specific seasons, he said that the Ayurvedic texts have specified which parts of which plants should be harvested during which season. “We have to ponder over whether this has any scientific basis or is this merely a figment of our ancestors’ imagination?” he asked. “We are unshakably convinced that they had an unerring scientific approach and they took the pains to write the texts down, keeping in mind the health of future generations,” he affirmed.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief scientist at Patanjali, Anurag Varshney said that as per Ayurveda, the effectiveness of medicinal plants depends on the phytochemicals present in them which change with the seasons. “This research provides scientific evidence of the traditional knowledge,” he noted. He further stated that collecting herbs at the right time would not just enhance their medicinal effects but also help improve the quality of the Ayurvedic medicines made from them.
