Misleading Non-rasayanas

Dear Editor,

The idea of "non-rasayanas" put forward by Gaurav Mahesh Doshi and co-authors^[1] does not exist in Ayurveda at the first instance. Though, in science, it is always welcome to generate new ideas, concepts, and terminologies, one must take sufficient care while conceptualizing them. Authors must define the scope of new concept/word with adequate clarity, supported by evidence. The concept/word "non-rasayana" proposed by them is very immature and not substantiated with evidences in the article. The theoretical background to consider an herb as non-rasayana has not been mentioned anywhere in the article. However, it appears that the authors are targeting exploration of herbs not described as rasayana in Ayurveda, but have a potential to bring about immunomodulation as non-rasayana. Such a translation looks to be baseless and will mislead researchers and Ayur philosophers, which ultimately is a gross disservice to the age-old medical system. Ayurveda ascribes multifold rejuvenating functions with rasayana, including tissue promoting (dhatu vardhana), complexion promoting (varnya), physical strength (balya), aphrodisiac (vrishya), voice promoting (swarya), vision promoting (chakshushya), etc., apart from immune functions (vyadhikhamatva). While describing "rasayana," authors restrict to plants, which is only one way of achieving rasayana,^[2],[3] whereas rasayana is a much wider concept of Ayurveda, involving daily regimens with righteous conduct. Ayurveda has indicated that daily regimens helping to achieve rasayana include daily consumption of milk and milk products (ksheera-ghrta sevana) and regular exercise, which is optimum and suitable to the individual. With this, a righteous conduct like truthfulness, obeying the rules of society, respecting the elders and learned are also indicated to be important components of rasayana, which invariably take care of mental health.^[2] Since rasayana is a concept developed with Ayurveda epistemology, a concept of non-rasayana (if at all constructed) must have its logic originating from Ayurveda philosophy (it may be supported by modern science as needed), without which there is no meaning and value to the word non-rasayana. Thus, correlating the non-rasayana plants to mere immunomodulation is not of any benefit to Ayurveda or life sciences. Read more....