Development of Ayurvedic and Siddha Medicine through the Application of Modern Pharmaceutical Technique

Ayurveda and siddha are the ancient medicinal system that uses herbs as potential therapeutic agent but mainly suffer with limitations of inaccuracy in dose, less quality control standards, unacceptable odour and taste, type of dosage form, difficulty in administration and poor patient acceptance. The present paper involves the amendment of a new dosage form for improving the therapy of poly herbal formulation, and in this work Thirikadugu Chooranam and Nilavembu Kudineer Chooranam has been selected as models. These choornas are usually prescribed in the form of kashayam and kudineer (1 – 2 gm as hot water decoction twice a day), respectively in Siddha system of medicine. The inappropriate dose and dosing schedule, difficulty in preparation of the kashayam, bitter taste necessitates the development of a solid dosage form. But the direct conversion of choorana powder into tablets/capsules reduces the solubility of the active components, which actually need to be given as a solubilised extract. So, Modified Liquisolid Compaction technique is adapted her where the aqueous or hydro-alcoholic extract (kashayam or decoction) is prepared from the powder and concentrated to low liquid content, which is then converted into free flowing powder by the addition of inert carriers such as microcrystalline cellulose, silicon dioxide and lactose, followed by compression of the mass as compact discs. The liquisolid compact of the formulated Chooranam was studied for different quality control parameters.