Disease preventive and health promotive aspects of Indian traditional systems of medicine and antioxidant and other bioactive metabolites in Rasayana Drugs

The pre-historic humans selected his therapeutic agents, mainly plants, by instinct followed by his keen observation of the behavior of other wild animals. The early humans might have tried a wide range of plants and in this process many might have sacrificed their lives. Pre-Vedic medicinal practices were simple ways of administration of drugs as fresh juices and dried powders. It however, began to be further improved through the ‘Vedic’, ‘Samhita’, and ‘Samgraha’ periods and it has now finally come down to us in its present form in the 21^st century. During the Vedic period cooking of medicines might have gained importance. But complex formulations did not however develop even during this period. Simple single herbal preparations in the form of fresh juice, paste or decoction or fermented wines were the main form of drug administration. Animal products, minerals, and metals were also incorporated into pharmaceuticals during ‘Samhita’ period. Without their capacity to capture the sun's energy through the process of photosynthesis by the plants, no higher forms of life is possible on our planet. The living world of higher organisms as we know today is fully dependant on the process of photosynthesis -which involves capture of energy from sunlight and its conversion into chemical energy with the help of chlorophyll present in plants, mainly in their leaves. Geological evidences indicate that single cell organisms like cyanobacteria are capable of photosynthesis. Oxygen is now known as the molecular shark that destabilizes and destroys the living organisms making, one old or diseased. In fact, when life evolved, oxygen was not there and it was a reducing atmosphere. It was only after the evolution of photosynthetic organisms that oxygen came out as a byproduct of photosynthesis and it was released in to the air. Solar energy stored by the plants in the form of chemical energy has to be converted in to kinetic energy and make it available to the system for its metabolism, motion and other energy consuming activities. This kinetic energy formation was made possible by mitochondria, which is known as the ‘power house of living cells’. In human beings there are over 5,000 mitochondria in each and every cell, which is continuously producing the energy currency known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from glucose by a process called photophosphorylation. Adenosine triphosphate contains stored energy.