Elsevier

Medical Hypotheses

Volume 59, Issue 4, October 2002, Pages 468-472
Medical Hypotheses

Kushta(s): unique herbo-mineral preparations used in South Asian traditional medicine

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0306-9877(02)00260-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Herbs and minerals are the integral parts of traditional systems of medicine in many countries. Kushta is a form of herbo-mineral preparations used in traditional systems of medicine (Unani and Ayurvedic) of Indo-Pak subcontinent. These preparations have long been used and claimed to be the most effective and potent dosage form. However, there are only few scientific studies carried out on these products because of several reasons mainly being the lack of communication among traditional healers, physicians and scientists. The objective of this paper is to fill this gap by translating the old concepts in modern understanding, providing possible explanation and hypotheses. Some recommendations have also been given to provide the path to initiate research in this area of potential therapeutic value and public concern.

Introduction

Traditional medicine has long been practiced in the Indo-Pak subcontinent. Ayurvedic and Unani/Tibb are the two most popular systems of traditional medicine in this region. Each system uses herbs, minerals and animal tissues in various dosage forms. `Kushta' is one of the dosage forms prepared in a very special manner. `Kushta' the past participle of `KUSHTAN' (a Persian word for `to kill'), means `killed or conquered'. Primarily, a Kushta is a blend of mineral(s) and herbal extract(s). In the traditional system, the term is used for those dosage forms, which are effective in small doses and are prompt in action (1). Some of the most commonly prescribed Kushtas and their elements are shown in Table 1. These preparations have long been used by traditional healers and are claimed to be very effective and are still used today in these systems. However, no attempt has been made to study this type of dosage form in a scientific manner. This is because of a lack of communication among traditional healers, physicians and scientists and the unavailability of the literature in English. Most of the books are written in the local language and are not accessible to the rest of the world. Only few books have been translated into English. Among these are `Hamdard Pharmacopoeia of Eastern Medicine' (1) and `Bazzar Drugs' (2).

The objective of this paper is to draw the attention of the scientific community towards this `dosage form' traditionally used in this region for centuries. Efforts have been made to translate and/or transform the old concepts into English, and provide some scientific explanation, hypotheses and suggestions for future work in this field. The present paper will form a bridge between traditional medicine and modern science to initiate extensive studies on this potential dosage form, which will provide a rationale for the use of these dosage forms in modern medicine.

Section snippets

Old concept of Kushtas

As mentioned earlier, Kushtas are herbo-mineral preparations. According to traditional concepts preparing any drug in form of Kushta remarkably improves the potency, efficacy and safety of the individual components used. However, preparation of a particular Kushta depends on several factors like intended use, type of mineral or herbs used, etc. For example, a Kushta of iron prepared by treating iron with Aloe vera juice is used as haematinic with lemon juice it is useful in heart diseases,

Kushtas and modern medicine

The scientific work on this type of preparation is lacking in the literature despite the great advancement of technologies during the last few decades.

The lack of interest of scientists in traditional medicine like Kushta, include, lack of proper communication among traditional healers, clinicians and scientists due to differences in concepts, language, to some extent professional jealousy, lack of patent protection, misconceptions of practitioners of the two systems, etc. There are also some

Possible explanation of the effectiveness of Kushtas

There are few scientific studies on Kushta to explain how these preparations might be acting and what changes occur during the process of preparing a Kushta. Therefore, we provide a hypothetical explanation for the effectiveness of Kushta, to give food for thought to those who might be interested to work on these preparations and to provide grounds to initiate research in this area.

Constant heating of mineral(s) with particular herbal extract and vigorous wet grinding are the essential steps in

Recommendations

Recently the interest of the scientific community is growing in rationalizing the old remedies in the light of modern science, and the output is very encouraging [28], [29], [30]. WHO also promotes the safe and effective use of traditional medicines, the role of WHO is to assist those countries where traditional medicine is widely practiced to incorporate it into their national health systems and to bring the potential services by traditional practitioners into full play in primary health care.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Hakeem M. Usman, a traditional healer, for his interest and explaining the old concepts and providing hints and literature in local language.

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