AYURVEDIC PAIN BALM OINTMENT, CREAM & OIL MANUFACTURING

Balm is a popular Asian medicine and a wide assortment can be found at any local market or pharmacy. Traditionally, balm is used for skin problems as well as muscle, bone, ligament sprains, strains, and pains. With the exception of (naam mun) leang pa, the components for this formula can be purchased in most markets throughout Thailand. The leang pa is derived from mountain goats that live in northern Myanmar. The (naam mun) gnaa and (naam mun) plou are used in daily cooking and are readily available. Leang pa is used to help bruising and swelling and in conjunction with gnaa to help bone pain and healing. Gnaa is more effective when in conjunction with leang pa. Phim sen is used to protect the body from any side effects of the other constituents and as a very effective means of reducing swelling. Karabun is used to reduce bruising, bleeding, and to facilitate the uptake of the medicine through the skin. Also, the ragum is effective for external pain. The Balm Formula is mainly used for muscle, tendon, ligament, and bone pain and for bone healing. It is also used for abrasions, bruises, insect bites, the common cold (applied to chest), and for headaches (applied to temple). The Balm Formula is often adjusted for individual needs. The ragum or leang pa can be increased for muscle, tendon, ligament or bone pain, the plou or gnaa (sesame) can be increased for more skin care protection, and salet phangphon (cobra tongue), waan raang chute (purple allamanda), phlu (betel) and ta khrai hom (lemon grass) can be added for insect bites, poisoning, or detoxification. Availability is also a factor because of the leang pa – an additional seventy-five ml of plou can be substituted when leang pa is not available. Using leang pa makes the balm hotter to the touch, which many patients find appealing. The basis of Ayurvedic therapeutics rests on the five well defined pharmacological principles of Rasa, Guna, Virya, Vipaka and Prabhava-just mentioned above. In a sense, these five principles are, as it were, the `Panchasheel’ or five pillars of pharmacology on which is built the edifice of Ayurvedic Therapeutics. These five principles, as a rule, cover the entire range of diseases-whether of constitutional character or microbiological origin. The healthcare market in India is evolving at a rapid pace. As per estimates, it is one of the fastest growing industries with an estimated CAGR of 23% from 2015 to 2020, and is expected to be a $280 billion market by 20201. Rising income levels, growing geriatric population, greater penetration of health care in rural settings, increasing health awareness with an emphasis on ‘preventative healthcare’, is expected to enhance the demand for Healthcare services. India’s National Health Policy aims at achieving Universal Health Coverage and delivering quality healthcare to all at an affordable cost. The policy aims at providing a comprehensive primary health package which includes major communicable, non-communicable and chronic diseases, geriatrics, palliative and rehabilitative care. For a vast country like India, to achieve this goal with just the modern medicine system in place is a herculean task. Modern therapies have its own drawbacks of burgeoning costs, quality of life issues, and inability to prevent and cure many diseases. However, Ayurveda can definitely change this outlook of healthcare delivery by getting integrated into mainstream healthcare. As shown in Figure 1, promoting Ayurveda as a mainstream therapy approach can be used to bridge the burgeoning gap between demand and supply by primarily focusing on secondary and tertiary prevention of diseases. In addition, the substantial opportunity in promotive health and restoration of functional health is best addressed by Ayurveda. Ayurveda management is based on the concept of root-cause diagnosis and management. As shown in Figure 2, it treats not only the physical aspects of the disease but also treats and manages the root cause of the problem, in contrast to the prevalent practice of mere symptom management. It goes beyond just being a curative system of medicine to being a preventive and promotive healthcare system as well. Classical Ayurveda encompasses all attributes of a mature and complete medical science encompassing anatomy, physiology, pharmaceutics, disease causation-evolution, and disease management. The aetio-pathogenesis of disease is established through a structured process of compilation of disease signs and symptoms, medical history, and clinical examination. Thereafter, a wholebody, systemic healing process attempts to restore homeostasis or good health by reversing the aetio-pathogenesis for not only disease cure but also for sustained wellbeing in body, mind and soul dimensions. This comprehensive therapeutic approach or ‘Chikitsa’ is uniquely personalised, and includes one or more of diet-lifestyle-medicinetherapy. Ayurveda’s principles are universal and time tested in its application to diseases prevalent in the 21st century, across the world.