Enumeration of Botanicals of Flower, Fruit and Seed Origin Occurring in the Siddha Book Gunapadam by Murugesa Mudaliar

INTRODUCTION

Siddha is one of the oldest, traditional Indian systems of medicine, which uses predominantly herbs, along with metal/mineral and animal-origin drugs. Even though the basic raw materials of the Siddha system are derived from herbs, metals/minerals and products of animal origin were also given great emphasis by ancient Siddhars, who laid the foundation for this system. Most of their documented works were lost and only very few residual scripts were found and preserved, and were transcribed and translated as Siddha literature asa reference for reference the current and future generations.

Gunapadam (Siddha Materia Medica) is one of the branches of Siddha system of medicine which broadly deals with raw drugs sourced from plants, minerals and animals along with their purification and preparation methodologies. ‘Gunapadam Vol-1’ is the notable work of KS Murugesa Mudaliar encompassing particulars of an individual raw drug in terms of Siddha/Tamil name, botanical name, vernacular names, parts used, organoleptic characters, category, pharmacological actions, indications, formulation procedures, etc. The book was recently enlisted among the 88 Siddha books in the draft of Ministry of Ayush to be published under the ‘Amendment in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (23 of 1940)’. Separate volumes were published emphasizing the category of origin of drugs namely Mooligai vaguppu (Herbal origin), Thathu vaguppu (Mineral origin), and Seeva vaguppu (Animal origin). The book educates about the above-mentioned details of individual raw drugs; however, one has to refer and apply the acquired knowledge to work on a particular polyherbal formulation taking into account the synergistic and interactive effects among the single drugs. Thus, being a compendium of basic information about raw drugs, this book is being used by different classes of information seekers such as students, researchers, medical professionals, etc. A comprehensive list was lacking when it comes to the botanical sources for the drugs mentioned in the book. Hence, they were studied, by interpreting the text and the song mentioned under each drug and listed in this paper along with their botanical names.

The author, who was referred as ‘Pandit Vaidyaratnam’ compiled Gunapadam mooligai vaguppu for the purpose of students of Indian medicine. Some of his noted works were Balavagadam (Siddha Paediatrics), Nanju Nool Maruthuvam (Siddha Toxicology), etc. Apart from these he also decoded Agathiyar Gunavagadam manuscripts, the contents of which were also used in the compilation of Materia medica.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Drugs of herbal origin were listed from Gunapadam Mooligai vaguppu book volumes 1(Murugesa, 2018 Vol 1; Murugesa, 2018 Vol 2) and 2, the latest edition, published in the year 2018. Accepted names/synonyms along with author citation were tabulated for each drug along with the page number and volume. In cases where the accepted name of the drug is different from the botanical name mentioned in the book, the former is mentioned in brackets as synonym. The ‘Unplaced’ statuses were also updated as per world flora online plant list (wfoplantlist.org). The term ‘poo’ was included under the category of flower drugs, ‘kuruthu’ has been listed separately as immature flower; inflorescence (Inf.) has been mentioned in brackets after drug names; special parts such as style and stigma is stated in case of ‘kungumapoo’; ‘kaai’ and ‘pazham’ were considered under fruits; ‘Nungu’ is mentioned as immature fruit; ‘virai’, ‘vithai’, ‘vithu’ ‘kottai’ and ‘paruppu’ were listed under seed category. There were certain entries in which botanical names were not mentioned for certain Siddha drugs, however, botanical parts and uses were listed. Such entries were considered under the same category of the botanical part mentioned in the book, but the botanical name has been kept blank, leaving scope for further research in finding the exact botanical source of the plant. It was chosen not to mention the medicinal uses of the drugs as it would be elaborate replication of the book itself; readers can easily find the Siddha medicinal uses of that particular drug in the page numbers listed beside each drug. Some drugs were mentioned using the parts such as Alamaram, Usilamaram, Kichlipazham, etc, in which the terms ‘maram’, ‘pazham’ meant tree and fruit respectively in tamil language, which might be used by the author to denote the plant by a common term for easy identification and not the part alone in specific. In such cases it was chosen not to alter the names used in the book since it might confuse the readers, and the part under which it was listed may kindly be considered. The names of the drugs listed in the index of the book remain in the order of the Tamil alphabets, however, it has not been followed in the cases of subcategories such as Akrottu, Nattu akrottu, etc.

RESULTS

As there are several botanicals mentioned in the book, reproductive parts such as flowers (Table 1), fruits (Table 2) and seed drugs (Table 3) alone are enlisted in this communication.

A total of 410 botanical drugs originated from flower, fruit and seed are mentioned in this book. There are 49 monographs published in Siddha Pharmacopoeia of India which originates from said botanical parts are also listed (Table 4).

DISCUSSION

More than half of the world’s population prefers alternative system of medicine over conventional system (Pal, 2002). Some of the common alternative systems of medicine in India includes Siddha, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unani, Sowa Rigpa, etc., which are practised among the diversified population of our country. It is observed that these alternative systems are chosen over the conventional system mostly by patients with chronic illnesses such as arthritis, cancer etc (Astin et al., 2006; Challahan et al., 2009; Metcalfe et al., 2010). WHO implemented Traditional Medicine Strategy (2014-23) to promote the approved traditional systems of medicine (World Health Organization, 2013). Adopting the WHO guidelines, Government of India has implemented the pharmacovigilance system for Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani Drugs (ASU) (Baghel, 2010). Siddha formulations such as Adathodai manapagu (Singh et al., 2017), Kabasura kudineer (Thillaivanan et al., 2015), Nilavembu kudineer (Mattummal et al., 2018), Thontha sura kudineer (Grzanna et al., 2005; Dhuley, 1999; Castillo et al., 2014; Mathew and Kuttan, 1997; Chen et al., 2009), Vajra kandi chenduram (Saravana et al., 2020) and Visha sura kudineer (Shailaja et al., 2017) documented promising effects during the outbreak of COVID-19. With this growing popularity it becomes essential to make people aware of the treasures and concepts which were preserved through ages and remained unidentified.

A total of 96 flowers, 126 fruits and 188 seed drugs are listed in Gunapdam while there are a total of 49 flower, fruit and seed drugs monographs in Siddha Pharmacopoeia of India Vol.1 (Ministry of Health and Family, 2011 Vol 1; Ministry of Health and Family, 2011 Vol 2) and Vol. 2.

CONCLUSION

List of the botanicals used in a traditional medical system will be directly indicative of natural resource the system uses for the benefit of human and livestock. The index prepared in this research provides information on the botanical names for people who are not familiar with the Siddha names. This work was mainly done to ease the process of data retrieval wherein the herbal drugs (mentioned in Mooligai vaguppu) have been classified under different botanical parts and enlisted with their Siddha names and botanical names as mentioned in the book. The work would be supportive for the drug discovery and imminent researches conducted in the Novel herbal drug delivery systems.