European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE PLANTS MENTIONED FOR DEEPANIYA KARMA IN MADANAPALA NIGHANTU AND BHAVAPRAKASHA NIGHANTU

Prof. Karanam Chandrashekhar*

ABSTRACT

Agni is an important factor in the biological system of an individual as per Ayurveda. Anything that disturbs it, will lead to many diseases. Hypo-functioning of agni is considered as an aetiology of many diseases. In order to maintain it in an optimum level during the process of digestion and metabolism, a class of drugs called deepaniya dravyas are used. Madanapala nighantu(MPN) and Bhavaprakasha nighantu (BPN) are two important mile stones in evolution of materia medica of Ayurveda. Both are similar in many aspects especially, when it comes to the verse of many plants. On analysing the plants mentioned in both lexicons, MPN has described 64 plants for deepaniya karma. While, BPN has mentioned 100 botanicals from 95 plants. MPN has mentioned 35 plants that possess eka rasa, 22 plants possessing dwika rasa, 6 plants containing trikarasa and 1 drug that possesses panca rasa for deepana karma. In contrast, BPN delineated 47 plants that possess eka rasa, 39 plants possessing dwika rasa, 9 plants containing trika rasa,4 plants that possess chatvari rasa and 1drug possessing pancha rasa for deepana karma.

Keywords: Agni, Deepaniya, Appetite stimulant, Nighantu, Rasa vikalpa.