ABSTRACT
Indian scientists started exploring the hidden potentials of Indian medicinal plants and tried to scan the validity of old knowledge. To protect the holistic medicine from the scientific onslaught, in 1964, 54 classical and pro-classical books were given legal sanction in the Drugs and Cosmetic Act as “authoritative” books, giving them the status of a knowledge-base in Ayurveda. Indian scientists had been trying to use the ancient wisdom and new scientific advancements for making Ayurveda an evidence-based, disease-specific medicinal system. Holistic medicine is on the center stage. In this setup, scientists are facing a serious problem. The biggest drawback is that Ayurvedic drug “research” is confined to only classical plant drugs, and the whole exercise more or less remain confined to centuries-old formulations. This problem is a serious one, so serious that it may adversely affect the future growth of a promising medicinal system.
