European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ADULTERATION AND SUBSTITUTION OF ASU DRUGS: A CHALLENGE

Dr. Abhijeet G. Pachpor*, Dr. Najneen M. Bhaldar, Dr. P. D. Dongare, Dr. N. B. Swami and Dr. Dipali Pawar

ABSTRACT

Plants are being used to treat diseases since vaidik kala, their effectiveness has been proved in treating varieties of diseases as mentioned in Bhrihatrayi of Ayurveda i.e. Charak samhita, Sushrut samhita, Vaghbhat samhita. Our Indian peoples are now becoming aware of side effects and adverse reactions of synthetic drugs (allopathic medicine). Ayurvedic herbs are known for their minimum side-effectsproperty. Majority of Indian population still rely on medicinal herbs for their primary health care. But because of non availability of medicinal herbs due to deforestation, non availability of many species, incorrect identification of medicinal plants, time duration required for cultivation of plants, andsome species became endangered and cannot be used in Ayurvedic treatment, thisresult in serious and offensive practice i.e. Adulteration and Substitution of herbal medicines. The quality medicine only can cure the disease; the quantity of quality drug needed to treat disease is relatively small and require short period for its action. Adulterated and substituted medicinal products are responsible for bad image of Ayurvedic treatment regarding no results or needs longer time of duration with large amount of doses to treat the diseases.

Keywords: Adulteration, substitution, ASU drugs.