Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’

Ayurveda, the system of traditional medicine from India, holds that ‘Rasa’, a concept roughly corresponding to taste, is a basis for identifying pharmacological properties of plants and other materia medica used in Dravyaguna—its system of phytomedicine. This idea has recently found support in studi...

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Main Authors:	Joshi, Kalpana, Hankey, Alex, Patwardhan, Bhushan
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford University Press 2007
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1876604/

id	pubmed-1876604
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-18766042007-06-01 Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’ Joshi, Kalpana Hankey, Alex Patwardhan, Bhushan Commentaries Ayurveda, the system of traditional medicine from India, holds that ‘Rasa’, a concept roughly corresponding to taste, is a basis for identifying pharmacological properties of plants and other materia medica used in Dravyaguna—its system of phytomedicine. This idea has recently found support in studies of ibuprofen, the pharmacological properties of which are similar to those of oleocanthal, because the two substances have very similar tastes. This paper discusses a possible scientific approach to understanding the Ayurvedic (hypo)thesis in terms of the stereochemical basis of both pharamaco-activity and taste, and the numbers of possible pharmaco-active compounds that ‘Rasa’ may be able to distinguish. We conclude that molecules binding to a specific enzyme active site should have their own ‘Rasa’, and that the number of different subjectively experienced ‘tastes’ is more than enough to distinguish between molecular shapes binding to all enzyme active sites in the body. Oxford University Press 2007-06 2006-10-05 /pmc/articles/PMC1876604/ /pubmed/17549231 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ecam/nel064 Text en © 2006 The Author(s).
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Joshi, Kalpana Hankey, Alex Patwardhan, Bhushan
spellingShingle	Joshi, Kalpana Hankey, Alex Patwardhan, Bhushan Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’
author_facet	Joshi, Kalpana Hankey, Alex Patwardhan, Bhushan
author_sort	Joshi, Kalpana
title	Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’
title_short	Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’
title_full	Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’
title_fullStr	Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’
title_full_unstemmed	Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’
title_sort	traditional phytochemistry: identification of drug by ‘taste’
description	Ayurveda, the system of traditional medicine from India, holds that ‘Rasa’, a concept roughly corresponding to taste, is a basis for identifying pharmacological properties of plants and other materia medica used in Dravyaguna—its system of phytomedicine. This idea has recently found support in studies of ibuprofen, the pharmacological properties of which are similar to those of oleocanthal, because the two substances have very similar tastes. This paper discusses a possible scientific approach to understanding the Ayurvedic (hypo)thesis in terms of the stereochemical basis of both pharamaco-activity and taste, and the numbers of possible pharmaco-active compounds that ‘Rasa’ may be able to distinguish. We conclude that molecules binding to a specific enzyme active site should have their own ‘Rasa’, and that the number of different subjectively experienced ‘tastes’ is more than enough to distinguish between molecular shapes binding to all enzyme active sites in the body.
publisher	Oxford University Press
publishDate	2007
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1876604/
_version_	1611396739529441280

Traditional Phytochemistry: Identification of Drug by ‘Taste’

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