Roy Upton, founder of the AHP and an accredited Doctor of Ayurvedic Medicine, said his organization has been cooperating with AYUSH, which is an Indian governmental organization that covers Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy.
Covering the entire landscape of Indian medicinal tradition
While the other three are well known outside of India, Unani and Siddha are not. Unani is a traditional medicine system that is Persian and Arabic in origin, while Siddha is a system that arose in the Dravidian region of South India. That area has a separate cultural history from the rest of the subcontinent, in which influences from farther north and west in Asia were mostly absent.
“Their primary goal it to promote natural healing modalities within the culture of India,” Upton told NutraIngredients-USA at the recent Expo West trade show in Anaheim, CA.
Upton said a monograph his group did on the longtime Ayurvedic mainstay preparation of Triphala caught the organization’s eye.
Triphala, a well-recognized a polyherbal Ayurvedic medicine consisting of fruits of the plant species Emblica officinalis (Amalaki), Terminalia bellerica (Bibhitaki), and Terminalia chebula (Haritaki), is a cornerstone of the gastrointestinal and rejuvenative treatments within the traditional medicine system
The formula has been applied to many endpoints, including stress management. According to the authors of a recent review on triphala published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, stress is defined as “[A] state of disharmony caused by perceived threat that is counteracted by an adaptive response to reestablish homeostasis and is associated with many chronic diseases.”
From a Western evidentiary standpoint, these effects have been verified in rats and mice as to how well the animals coped with stress induced by cold and by loud noises.
Unique approach to monographs
Upton said the Triphala monograph and others in the series, which will include ashwagandha, are unique in that they seek to marry traditional medicinal and Western clinical trials-based information.
“It’s this marriage of tradition and science. Nothing like it has ever been written anywhere in the world,” he said.
