Standardization of a polyherbal Siddha formulation, Amukkara Choornam

Abstract

India having a rich heritage of traditional medicine constituting with its different components like Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani . Botanicals constitute of major part of these traditional medicines. The development of these traditional systems of medicines with the perspectives of safety, efficacy and quality will help not only to preserve the traditional heritage but also to rationalize the use of natural products in the healthcare 1, 2 . The plant species mentioned in the ancient texts of Ayurveda and other Indian Systems of Medicine may be explored with the modern scientific approaches for better leads in the healthcare. Standardization of herbal formulations is essential in order to assess the quality of drugs 3-5 . The main problem in polyherbal herbal formulation is that the presence of each ingredient has to be established. The microscopic characters of each ingredient are very difficult to identify and also some times these are overlapping with the character of other ingredient. The paper presents development of methods for the evaluation of Amukkara choornam, a Siddha formulation which is used for gastritis, spleen enlargement, leucorrhoea, hiccup, anemia, tuberculosis and kappa diseases. It consists of fine powders of Lavangam (clove)- Syzygium aromaticum -10 parts, Sirunaga poo (cinnamon)Cinnamomum wightii -20 parts, Ela arisi (cardamom)Elettaria cardamomum -40 parts, Milagu (back pepper)