ATC/DDD Directed Classification of Neural Ayurvedic Medicines

Introduction: People have been using herbs for health care since Vedic times. Due to resurgence of ayurveda, utilization and consumption of herbal medicines is tremendously increasing leading to a significant percentage of the pharmaceutical market. The huge commercial benefits of herbal products are capturing the interest of pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Hence the safety and quality of medicinal plant materials and finished herbal medicinal products have become a major concern for health authorities, pharmaceutical industries as well as to the public. Presently, plenty of clinical trials are being conducted on herbal medicines; however, absence of harmonized classification has led to various confusions. The most important concern is the disputed identity of ayurvedic formulations sold under different brand names in different regions of the country and world. Recently, allopathic medicines have been classified by WHO on the basis of ATC/DDD (Anatomical- Therapeutic-Chemical/Daily Defined Dose) pattern of classification. The absence of such type of classification for ayurvedic products creates a situation of non recognition of these products in the international market. Hence there is a need to develop a classification system that is on the lines of ATC/DDD so that particular herb may qualify a product to be recognised under one name all over the world. Materials and Methods: Keeping in view the above scenario, a classification system is being proposed for ayurvedic products. The ayurvedic formulations and their site of action have been searched from various Ayurvedic texts. Internet sources such as Pubmed, Google Scholar, JSTOR etc. Results: The major reason for adopting similar classification for herbal medicines is that ayurvedic texts given by various scholars are published in Sanskrit or in the local/regional languages which make it difficult for the researchers to access, understand and interpret the knowledge shared. Conclusion: It is utmost important to generate such classification for herbal medicines as it will generate a classification data which can further be exploited for safety, efficacy as well as quality control purposes. Moreover, innovative classification will be helpful to provide standardized as well as a uniform way to classify the various herbal drugs and to generate new avenues for further ayurvedic research with more degree of precision. The classification will enable a product to be known under one banner/name at international level. Since the market is flooded with formulations related with neural disorders, hence herbal products used in neural disorders have been taken in the first phase.