Medicine inside bottle immersed in sand
Heating the bottle at 950 F
Adding Milk
Frying in Ghee
Adding Oil
Triturating the medicine
he uniqueness of our Ayurvedic medicines has had a big role to play in the success we have achieved in most nagging disorders.
Instead of buying adulterated herbs from the market our herbs are provided to us by the local farmers and herb collectors.These people have very deep understanding of the herbs,sometimes their knowledge exceeds that of the experts.
They collect herbs in the right season on auspicious days.On such days the potential of these herbs is proven to be maximum.Then they are properlydried.Based on the properties some herbs are dried in shade and others are dried in sunlight.Many herbs grow in the higher reaches of the Himalayas and require a great deal of effort to be collected.
Now these herbs are made into different formulations like powders, tablets, Quathas (decoctions), Malhars (ointments), lepas (creames), asavas & arishtas (alcoholic preparations), gugglu preparations (a variety of tablets prepared out of resin of a plant), ghee & oil preparations, Rasayanas (rejuvenative medicines)
To potentiate these medicines for more difficult cases we triturate them with other formulations like juices/milk/decoctions/buttermilk/ghee/cow urine e.t.c.
Now they have to undergo some difficult procedures.In some case they are placed in an earthen pot which is buried in the ground for six months. In other cases they are kept in a drum full of wheat for one month
Some medicines are alcohol based which is self generated alcohol. Herbal decoction along with sour herbal preparations are kept in a sealed earthen pot for one month. Fermentation ensues and the alcohol content of the resultant herbal medicine is found to be 2-3%. Some medicines are prepared after frying or heating with ghee or oil. Others are made to withstand high temperature procedures.
There is no set Ayurvedic medicine for a disease.For example there are about 240 medicines for Rheumatoid Arthrirtis described in our texts.We cannot single out the best medicine.Each patient is unique in body constitution and disease pattern.All medicines are good and only a wise doctor knows which ones to choose.So the medicine varies accordingly.This is the reason why we don’t advocate ‘product’ culture in Ayurveda where products for specific diseases are sold in the market.