IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB232461497

Overlooked contributions of Ayurveda literature to the history of physiology of digestion and metabolism (2023)

Singh, Aparna (Author)
Agrawal, Sonam (Author)
Patwardhan, Kishor (Author)
Gehlot, Sangeeta (Author)

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Volume: 45
Issue: 2
Pages: 13

URI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-023-00559-6

DOI: 10.1007/s40656-023-00559-6

Outside Links

PubMed

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Philosophy of medicine Metabolism; physiological chemistry Digestion Physiology Medicine, ayurvedic Ancient India

Ayurveda is a traditional system of healthcare that is native to India and has a rich documented literature of its own. Most of the historians agree that the documentation of core Ayurveda literature took place approximately in between 400 BCE and 200 CE, while acknowledging that the roots of its theoretical framework can be traced back to a much earlier period. For multiple reasons many significant contributions of Ayurveda literature to various streams of biological and medical sciences have remained under-recognized while recounting the historical milestones of development. This is true in the context of the physiology of digestion and metabolism too. In this communication we try to reconstruct a picture of the processes of digestion and metabolism as had been understood by ancient Ayurveda scholars. Though this understanding was primitive and insufficient in many ways, we argue that this deserves to be documented and acknowledged. To help with grasping the importance of these contributions, we juxtapose them with the corresponding insights pertaining to this subject reported by prominent western scientists. The major contributions of Ayurveda that have been recounted in this paper are those related to the description of three distinct phases of digestion (Avasthapaka), multiple sets of transformative entities acting at different levels of metabolism (Agni), and the roles ascribed to various internal and external factors in executing these physiological functions.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB232461497/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Claire Bubb; (2019)
The Physiology of Phantasmata in Aristotle: Between Sensation and Digestion

Article Orland, Barbara; Spary, E. C.; (2012)
Introduction

Article Federico Divino; (2023)
Elements of the Buddhist Medical System

Article Manohar, P. Ram; (2015)
Descriptions and Classification of Cancer in the Classical Ayurvedic Texts

Article Singh, Ram H.; (2015)
Foundations of Immunology in Ayurvedic Classics

Article Rao, B. Rama; (2015)
Classification of Substances in Vaidyanighantus--Medical Lexicons

Article Raghavan, Vaidyaratnam R.; (2012)
Patient Centered Therapy of Āyurveda: Approaches and Applications

Article Smith, Frederick M.; (2007)
Narrativity and Empiricism in Classical Indian Accounts of Birth and Death: The Mahābhārata and the Samhitās of Caraka and Suśruta

Article Liao, Yu-qun; (2002)
The Theory of Rasa in Ayurveda

Chapter Bhushan Patwardhan; Gururaj Mutalik; Girish Tillu; (2015)
Food and Diet

Article Philipp André Maas; (2017)
Rasāyana in Classical Yoga and Āyurveda

Book Liao, Yuqun; (2002)
Ayurveda, traditional Indian medicine

Article Raghava S. Boddupalli; (2024)
Plants of Atharvaveda: Their descriptions and medicinal uses

Book Chiara Beneduce; Denise Vincenti; (2018)
Oeconomia Corporis: The Body’s Normal and Pathological Constitution at the Intersection of Philosophy and Medicine

Article Meschini, Franco Aurelio; (2015)
La dottrina della digestione secondo Descartes. Itinerari tra testi, contesti e intertesti

Article Carmen Schmechel; (2022)
Descartes on fermentation in digestion: iatromechanism, analogy and teleology

Chapter Zucchi, Luca; (2005)
I liquori dissolventi: Lazzaro Spallanzani, John Hunter e la controversia sulla teoria chimica della digestione

Thesis Ragland, Evan R.; (2012)
Experimenting with Chemical Bodies: Science, Medicine, and Philosophy in the Long History of Reinier De Graaf's Experiments on Digestion, from Harvey and Descartes to Claude Bernard

Thesis Green, Alexa Harcourt; (2007)
The Market Cultures of William Beaumont: Ethics, Science and Medicine inAntebellum America, 1820--1865

Chapter Bhushan Patwardhan; Gururaj Mutalik; Girish Tillu; (2015)
Concepts of Health and Disease

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}