expiration date of ayurvedic medicines

[Guest guest]

>From http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/02/health/main677526.shtml

 

"There is no expiry date for ayurvedic medicines. Because there is no chemical

in it," said Manoj Kumar, who manages the stall.

 

Is it true?

Is it only for cow urine medicine?

 

Can i use the ayurvedic remedies that i have bought many years ago?

May be they are less effective.....

 

merevita

[Guest guest]

There are a number of half-truths about ayurveda floating around.

"Ayurvedic medicines do not have an expiration date" is one such

half-truth.

The concept of expiration date for medicines used in modern medicine

arises from the fact that after a certain time, the substances

undergo a change which makes them either uneffective or toxic.

At the time when the major texts on ayurveda were written the

practice was to consume the medication immediately after preparation.

A majority of the medicines were in the form of decoctions, pastes,

medicated oils and medicated ghees.

Over a period of time bhasma of metals and other inorganic

substances began to be used mainly due to the fact that they were

effective in small doses.

This branch was called as Rasa-Shastra and preparation of mercury

and sulphur was the base of this science.

Besides the efficacy in small doses these medicines also became

widely used as they could be stored for a longer time and hence

there was never the question of what to do if a particular substance

(plant) was not available. A majority of medicnes in Rasa-Shastra

can be utilised a long time after their preparation and hence can be

termed as not having an expiration date.

However in plant based medicine the picture changes. As mentioned

before it was never expected that a medicine would be prepared and

used even the next day, so there was no question about thinking

about expiration both in terms of loss of efficacy or toxicity. But

with cahnge in time the need to prepare and store medicines need to

be felt. Those who were uncomfotable with rasa-shastra medicines

(there are many ayurvedic practioners even today who never use rasa-

shastra medicines, not out of fear of the brouhaha caused over

metals in medicines but because they consider it to be inferior to

plant based medicines) and used only plant based preparations had to

resort to powder form and their variants like mashi (coal

preparations), guti (small tablets), vati (medium size tablets),

guggul (a medicinal substance which also acts as an adhesive) etc.

Since many of these are plant based it is unlikely that they will

turn toxic after a certain period of time, but they will surely

loose their efficacy. So if a person has a doubt whether a one year

old choorna will work or not, he is loosely told "dont worry, there

is no expiry date for ayurvedic medicine". While this may be true

that it wont cause any harm, it is most certain that a one year old

powder will not show the desired result.

There is an entire chapter in Sharangdhara Samhita where the

efficacy period of various medicnes is mentioned.

This can be taken to mean expiration period for the same.

Having said that, there are only 3 types of ayurvedic medicines

which do not have an expiration period. First is ofcourse the

bhasmas as explained above. Second is medicated ghees and third is

asava/arishtha preparation (alcholic preparation). Infact it is said

that the older the ghee or asava/arishtha the more efficient it is.

This ofcourse takes into account the fact that they are properly and

hygenically stored. However many unscrupulous alter this information

to say that all ayurvedic medicnes fit the bill. I have had many

ayurvedic medical representatives explaining to me why I should use

their dated products using this argument.

 

So for the record :-

 

1) Ayurvedic medicines do have an expiration period in the sense

that the become ineffective after a certain amount of time. This

period may be as short as 4 hours for freshly prepared decoction to

around 2 years for properly prepared and stored tablet forms. Even

medicated oils should not be used if they emit a stale odour.

 

2) Only bhasmas, ghees and asava/arishta have no expiration period.

 

3) Ghees and asava/arishta if prepared and stored properly increase

in efficacy over a period of time.

 

Cybervaidya