Critical Analysis of Plant Nomenclature in Ayurveda and its Influence on Binomial Nomenclature

Abstract

Ayurveda is the oldest holistic science. The primary tool in treatment of Ayurveda are herbs which are collected from indigenous flora. The importance and apt use of plants in treatment begins from Vedic period. Furthermore, Acharya Charaka quotes that no plants on the universe is devoid of medicinal value.It is upon the intelligence of Vaidya to utilize these medicinal plants effectively. The medicinal plants were named accordingly and few were modified in later literatures. It was made sure that the plant names and synonyms in Sanskrit defined either their morphology or actions or both for ease in identification and usage such as karanja has synonym snigdha patra owing to its glabrous leaf surface and its Botanical name is Pogamia glabra where glabra means glabrous or smooth. Another example, yastimadhu and its synonym madhuka both denotes sweetness and its Botanical name Glycyrrhiza glabra where Glycyrrhiza refers to sweet taste. The present universally accepted naming system of plants, binomial nomenclature somewhat seems to have references from Ayurveda’s naming system. This article tries to highlight few examples to put thought over the ideology of naming of plants in Ayurveda.