Ayurvedic Medicine
Ayurvedism is an ancient Indian traditional medicine that dates back over 2,700 years and is still widely practised today. It is certainly not quackery, though some conventional medical practitioners today might call it ‘pseudoscientific’, in the sense of it being contrary to Western medical ideas.
The billion or so followers would certainly not describe it like that. Ayurvedic medicine uses complex herbal and mineral compounds and correct physical practices to address imbalances in the three elemental dosas. A huge list of around 700 plants appears in the eighth-century BCE Sushruta Samhita. Important spices and herbs include turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel seed, black pepper, asafoetida and ginger, though there are many others. Ayurvedism does not only employ herbal remedies – animal products, minerals, metals and various elixirs are also used.More on the topic Ayurvedic Medicine:
- 1.3 Islamic and Indian Medicine
- Background: The Ancient Indian Texts
- Post-Medieval Uses
- The Ginger Spice Seeds: Cardamom and Grains of Paradise
- Bibliography
- The transmission of science and philosophy
- Care of the Indigent and Public Physicians
- Early Uses of the Ginger Family
- Sundry Old World Spices
- Abdominal and Intestinal Disorders
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World history -