NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AYURVEDA (NLAM)

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Hello Friends

 

It gives me immense pleasure to announce that Phase 3 of National Library of

Ayurveda Medicine (NLAM), an comprehensive online databse of Ayurveda Formularly

is complete. The repository aims to help Ayurveda students, Research scholars,

Faculty and others interested and intrigued by Ayurveda. It furthers aims at

helping common man to understand Ayurveda formulations, the way they are

prepared and the ingredients used.

 

The utility is First of its kind displaying data on standard terms with proper

explanation and co-relation of Ayurveda terms, Ayurveda Plants , Ayurveda

Minerals, Ayurveda Metals, Ayurveda terminologies etc. which contributes placing

a small stone towards standardizing Ayurveda. I request you to browse the

repository which I sincerely hope may prove useful in terms of study and

reference material of Ayurveda drugs with in-depth details for your institute.

 

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AYURVEDA MEDICINE. (NLAM)

 

URL (Web address): http://nlam.in

 

 

FEATURES

 

 

TEXT SEARCH

 

NLAM repository TEXT BASED SEARCH ENGINE is unique and bult from scratch in

accordance with various phoenitics associated with pronounciations of Ayurveda

formulations, herbs and other entities.

 

For example the Ayurveda formulation Amvatari can be spelled in differnt ways

like

amvatari,amwatari,amvaatari,amwaatari,amavatari,amawatari,amavaatari,amawaatari,\

aamvatari,aamwatari,aamvaatari,aamwaatari,aamavatari,aamawatari,aamavaatari,aama\

waatari.

 

Hence to account for such situation, the need was felt to build the search

engine keywords on these lines of phoenitics which may differ from user to user.

The entire keyowrds have been generated using Sanskrit Laws of grammar (Panini

Vyakrana Sutra) to ensure that the user gets the desired information. The search

also ggives user acces to over 600 plants in the NLAM database.

 

 

ADVANCED SEARCH FOR DATA MINING

 

The advanced search option installed at the NLAM repository, gives user a

dynamic interface to data mine Ayurveda information. This option is specifically

suited for sttudents, researchers and teachers of Ayurveda to generate specific

information for analysis and comparitive studies. Certain features are listed as

follows.

 

1>Search Formulations containing Metals, Minerals (Land & Sea), Gemstones,

Kajjali, Salt, Caustic, Animal products and Plant Products.

Search Formulations as per preparation methods; Sanyukta-Kalpa, Guggul, Churn,

Kwaath (decoction), Bhasma (calcinied ash) etc.

Combination of 1 +2.

 

2>Apart from this there are two other section where you can gain information

about individual INGREDIENTS, TREATISE and AUTHORS.

 

The advanced search module does not give direct access to over 600 plants at

NLAM database due to brevity concerns. Since plants form a complex ingredient

network of Ayurveda formulations they are directly linked with the formula

descriptions. However users can search plants through the TEXT BASED SEARCH

explained earlier.

 

 

EXHAUSTIVE GLOSSARY

 

NLAM database also provides exhaustive glossary explaining various Ayurveda

terminologies and medicine production methods. It has friendly Help-Module which

ensures that the user understands terms as per Ayurveda terminologies.

 

 

PLANT INFORMATION AS PER ICBN

 

NLAM database describes plants used as ingredients in medicine preparation from

Ayurveda perspective with strict adherence to ICBN (International Code for

Botanical Nomenclature). Plant families, genus, species have been further

interlinked with GRIN database.

 

 

METAL, MINERAL, GEMSTONE INFORMATION.

 

Metals, Minerals and Gemstones used in Ayurveda formulations have been described

with proper co-relation with modern identifications. Each entity is interlinked

with Wikipedia.org for further information. The Shodhan or Purification methods

of Minerals, Metals and Gemstones have been described in detail.

 

 

AYURVEDA TREATISE DESCRIPTION.

 

Ayurveda treatises serving as a reference for medicines in NLAM database have

been described as per their publication details and content description. Due to

scarce information about Treatise , only releavant information from confirmatory

sources have been updated.

 

Authors of respective treatise have been described as per their period and other

details. Since many of the treatises are not published on a standard scale, it

is difficult to source exact information about each Author and Treatise. However

as NLAM research progresses the details would be updated.

 

 

MOBILE , HANDHELD DEVICE OPTIMIZED

 

The repository is MOBILE, HANDHELD DEVICE OPTIMIZED which means you can view it

on your handheld device, PDA, Iphone, Ipod etc. The repository has in built

intelligent redirection on basis of device detection so there is no need of

separate web-address.

 

 

STANDARD NLAM REPOSITORY FEATURES

 

1>Preparation methods of Ayurveda formulation are provided with near English

translations from original Sanskrit works and other Indian Languages.

 

2>Formulation Ingredients have been explained in detail and illustrations

provided as available.

 

3>Taxonomical co-relation of discussed Ayurveda Plants with inter-linking to

GRIN taxonomy database wherever applicable.

 

4>Grouping of disputed Ayurveda plants with respect to botanical identity with

probable discussions wherever applicable.

 

5>Scientific co-relation of discussed Ayurveda Mineral, Metals and Gemstones

with interlinking to Wikipedia.org wherever applicable.

 

6>Detail information of the source Ayurveda Treatise is provided as available.

 

7>Authors of source Ayurveda treatise have been discussed.

Glossary about various Ayurveda terms is provided for easy understanding.

 

8>Text based search built from the scratch with keywords generated on laws of

Sanskrit grammar to ensure correct matches for phoenitic variations resulting in

multiple pronounciations and subsequent spellings.

 

9>Advanced Search-Module is prepared to enable users to access data in an

interactive manner.

 

10>Repository navigation interface provides user with intelligent data mapping

to access detailed information of a particular formulation.

 

 

POINTS THAT ARE TO BE COVERED

 

NLAM repository is divided into 3 PHASES of active development and is in PHASE-3

development as of January-2009. Hence the following data is not covered which

would be updated as per subsequent phases.

Asava/ Aarishta (Medicated wines), Paak/ Avaleh (Sugar syrup, Linctus

preparations), Ark (Distilled preparations) or in general Herbal preparations

falling under Bhaisajya Kalpana are not covered and would be done so in

subsequent Phases

 

1>Details about certain Treatise and their Authors have also not been updated

due to requirement of more research.

 

2>Common , Regional names of Plants to be included.

 

3>Modern research data about Ayurveda formulations enlisted in NLAM repository

to be included.

 

4>Reference Sutras of each formulation described in Devnagiri/ Sanskrit scripts.

 

5>Multi Lingual support for text based search and information.

 

6>User/Vaidya/Practioner ratings about functionality/potency of each formulation

to be included.

 

I would sincerely request you to post comments and feedback through the feedback

page on the website. If you wish to reciev regular updates from NLAM please

register your email with NLAM by accessing the FEEDBACK PAGE

 

 

Hope for a positive response from you.

 

Dr. Sumit Ashok Kesarkar. B.A.M.S, Ph.D.

Curator of NLAM Repository (http://www.nlam.in)

National Library of Ayurveda Medicine

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Email: vdsumit

Personal Page: http://www.drsumit.in