In the early 19th century however, there was a national awakening in India which promoted a revival in Ayurveda. A government committee was constituted in 1946 which made recommendations for Ayurvedic teaching, research and education. Education of Ayurveda has been regularized by the Central Council of Indian Medicine, an autonomous body established under a Parliamentary Act. Revival of this age-old science in post-independence India resulted in Ayurvedic medicine being widely practised and taught often in conjunction with western medicine. Currently Ayurveda is being taught throughout India in more than 200 Ayurvedic colleges (check current figures) and universities of which around 140 colleges have facilities for UG studies and 60 of them have PG teaching facilities. At present there are more than 4 lakh Ayurvedic practitioners in India. Most of the clinical research in Ayurveda is being performed as post doctoral thesis work at several reputed Ayurveda universities.

The Government of India has accorded equal status to Ayurvedic and modern medicine graduates. It has created a separate Directorate for Indigenous Systems of Medicine in the Ministry of Health from March 1995 in order to fully utilize the potential of Ayurveda and other alternate medical sciences in the National Health Programmes.

There has however been a ‘lull’ in the 20th century in terms of new applications in Ayurveda. Despite the existence of large amounts of readily usable reference materials there has been a dearth of knowledge expansion in these systems not because of medical inefficiency but more due to economic, cultural and political factors. There is an urgent need on the part of the Ayurvedic medical fraternity and Indian policy makers to enable serious research on the theoretical foundations of indigenous medicine, which is well underway in many western universities.

An important feature of the wealth of ancient scientific, medical and technological wisdom in this subcontinent is that its theories and principles are not meant to be reposed in a small number of experts, institutions or texts. These were instead created and shared by great men and women who in stark contrast to the current craving for authorship, ownership and patent rights made this available on a wider scale to even ordinary folk. Thus local health practices interacted and developed with traditional knowledge such that our folk tradition is a treasure trove of nutritional information about thousands of ecosystem-specific food resources in addition to plant drug know-how.

However in India in the last 200 years, the scientific, economic and political influence of western biomedicine has been overwhelming and has affected all sections of society including the tribals. Also large-scale westernization and loss of cultural values are fast leading to erosion of such commonly available medical knowledge. There is reduced use of home remedies, traditional diets and health customs and a declining interest in folk traditions even in villages thanks to the heavy promotion of western values and products through the omnipresent media. It is alarming to see that traditional medical knowledge is further marginalized due to the renewed political and economic effects of globalism, which in its current form, has its intellectual and philosophical roots in mainstream western cultures.

The western world however has taken great interest in Ayurveda in recent times. During the last few decades many original Ayurvedic Sanskrit texts have been translated into various European languages, including English. Countries that have taken up study of Ayurveda include Australia, Poland, Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, Bangladesh, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Japan, United Kingdom, Mauritius, Nepal, Venezuela and the United States. Today there is a new proliferation of Ayurvedic classes, schools and treatment centres in most major metropolitan areas. The Maharishi International University in Fair Field, Iowa, USA has set up an Ayurvedic college. It has Ayurvedic Medical Centers in 29 countries and has treated over 90,000 patients in the United States alone. This has greatly contributed to the current popularity of Ayurveda in the west. The number of books on Ayurveda has also increased with a steady stream of interesting titles expanding global awareness of this profound field of medicine.

Research institutes world over are today engaged in the study, research and promotion of Ayurvedic medicine. The fast growing number of these institutes in Europe, the United States and Australia are a standing testimony to the global awareness of the significance and realization of the need to tap the hidden potential of this ancient knowledge. Ayurveda is gradually entering mainstream health care, being adopted by medical doctors, naturopaths, chiropractors, herbalists, nutritionists etc. The concept of integrating the best of all treatment practices towards providing a safe, holistic and comprehensive medical care is considered a pertinent solution to the current global health crisis. It is thus time for the study of pharmacognosy in our country to include and pursue the immense knowledge reserve of Ayurveda by

• Initiating interdisciplinary research efforts across the fields of Ayurvedic medicine, pharmacognosy, phytoanalytical chemistry, phytotherapy etc.
• Developing newer methods of standardization of traditional dosage forms
• Exploring newer methods of measuring/reproducing subjective phenomenon
• Development of more sensitive biomedical research tools to evaluate the concepts of Ayurveda more effectively.