| bdixit 2004-08-14, 1:38 pm |
| This is just a brief response to the story on Ayurvedic Samskaras
article (J. Postgraduate Med. 1991, 37, 157) on crude aconite, and how a
very very toxic alkaloidal preparation is made nearly non-toxic by
boiling it in cow's urine and cow's milk. Such methods (the so called
Ayurvedic Samskaras) of reducing toxicity are highly questionable
chemical practices, since by these Samskaras almost all of the toxic
alkaloid, aconitin, would be removed from the root. The principle toxic
alkaloid, aconitin is fat soluble, and when boiled with milk will be
removed, since milk contains 4 to 7% fat. So what is being identified as
nearly non-toxic drug is nothing else but powdered root. There is no
systematic chemical testing done in this type of processes to identify
what happened to the toxic alkaloid. Most of the processes used in
preparing Ayurvedic medicines are poorly standardized and rarely checked
for proper chemical outcomes. Recent reports of severe toxic reactions
due to high lead contents of Ayurvedic preparations
(<http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5326a3.htm> ) imported from
India are a testimony to the crude and unscientific methods that are
commonly used in the preparation of Ayurvedic medicine in many places in
India. .....Balwant Dixit, Professor of Pharmacology, university of
Pittsburgh.
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