Selecting the right medicine for the right patient is a challenge for every Physician. Unlike Contemporary Science, most of the Ayurvedic formulations have multiple indications and it will be difficult for many Physicians to remember all the Phalashruti of the Yogas and apply them in their clinical practice. Keeping this difficulty in mind, we have come up with this application- “e-Chikitsa”, where apart from searching the Dose, Anupana of the different formulations, one can also search the Medicines with multiple clinical conditions. The sources of the data are from AFI (Ayurvedic Formulary of India), API (Ayurvedic Pharmacopeia of India), EDL (Essential Drug List) and other classical textbooks of Ayurveda.
This application has 3 buttons in the Homepage:
Explore the Formulation
Search the Medicine
Find the Ayurveda equivalent terms for contemporary clinical words: e-Directory
1. Explore the Formulation
Click on this button, you will be asked to type first 3 letters of the Medicine that you want to explore. Select the medicine from the drop-down list and submit it. You will be redirected to the page where you can find
Dose and Anupana
Classical reference
Contraindications, if any (as mentioned in EDL)
Phalashruti – indications of the medication.
2. Search the Medicine:
The USP of this application is that you can select the Medicine based on the following criteria:
Clinical condition
Formulations like vati, guggulu, ghruta, avaleha, arista, etc as per the need of your patient
Search for medicines can also be made based on referral Textbooks like Astanga Hrudaya, Sahasrayoga, Sharangadhara Samhita, Bhaishajya Ratnavali, Rasatarangini, etc.
a. clinical condition: Type first 3 letters of the disease or clinical condition you want to explore. Select the health issue (Ayurveda terms only) from the dropdown box. Click on the submit button. You will find the list of medications for your selected clinical entity. Click on the Medicine to know the reference, dose, Anupana and other indications.
b. Selecting medicine based on formulation: If you want to select the medicine based on the formulations like Asava, Avalehya, vati etc, this is going to be your friendly application. First select the clinical entity (as you did above). Now mark the type of formulation you want to prefer. Submit it and you will be taken to the page where you can find the medications for the selected condition and type of formulation that you have preferred.
c. Select the medicines based on the textbook of reference: Here, you can pick up the medicine based on clinical condition and its Phalashruti as mentioned in textbooks. Ex. After selecting the clinical condition, select the textbook by marking it. After submission, you will be taken to the page where you will find the medicines for the clinical condition with reference to textbook of your choice.
Unlike in the Contemporary system of medicine, Ayurvedic formulations have multiple indications for the same medicine. This uniqueness of Ayurveda is utilized in this application. The user can add clinical conditions (up to 3) and get the list of common medicines.
Ex. If you enter “Kushta”, “Swasa”, and “Jwara”
You will get the output as:
There are 156 formulations for Kustha, 162 for Jawar and 158 for Swasa.
The common formulations for:
o Kustha and Jwara are 56,
o Kushta and Swasa are 47 and
o Jwara and Swasa are 61.
There are 22 formulations (including 20 single herbs) that can act on “Jwara”, “Kasa” and “Kushta” !!!.
This kind of insight will help physician to select the appropriate medications for their patients with multiple clinical issues.
3. Find the Ayurveda equivalent terms for contemporary clinical words- ‘e-Directory’ This button will help you to pick up the right Ayurveda clinical word to search in the application. Click on this button and select the English term like ‘less urine output’ or ‘oliguria’ and submit it. You will get the Ayurveda term to search in this Medicine database.
Currently, there are 666 medications (including 281 Eka mulika) with Vati and Gutikas being 88, followed by 54 Churnas, 53 Kwatha Churnas (Kashaya preparation) 46 Ghrutas, 33 Avalehas and 27 Bhasmas. We keep adding medicines to this list. Perhaps this is one of the best applications, to increase your Ayurveda prescription for your patient's needs.
Limitations of the Application:
There is no hierarchy for the indications mentioned for the medicines.
Contraindications /Precautions are mentioned only for those medicines that are documented as in EDL
This data set lacks external medicines and Panchakarma treatments
Dose for the single herbs wherever not mentioned need to understood as per the part of the plant used.
DISCLAIMER:
This application is meant for understanding Medicines and its indications on Health issues. Clinical decision-making based on the result of the application is at the own risk of the user. Request to cross-check with the classical/ contemporary texts, history, and clinical findings (including examination and investigation wherever required) before taking any clinical judgment.