| bdixit 2004-08-17, 4:12 am |
| This is just a brief response to the story on Ayurvedic Samskaras
article (J. Postgraduate Med. 1991) 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 6 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 to
Ayurvedic preparations imported from India are a testimony to the
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.
|