Abstract

AN AYURVEDIC LITERARY REVIEW OF BANAFSHA: A WELL KNOWN UNANI MEDICINAL HERB

Divya Laxmi Mehra* and Neeraj Mehra

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Abstract

Utilization of plants for medicinal purpose in India has been documented long back in ancient literature. Medicinal plants play an important role in Ayurveda and other Traditional systems of medicine. Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Folk (tribal) medicines are the major systems of indigenous medicines. Among these systems, Ayurveda and Unani Medicine are most developed and widely practised in India. Ayurveda is a validated system of medicine that originated in India. Unani system is of Islamic origin, which was introduced to India about a thousand years ago, and became indigenous to the country. Since then, these two existed as contemporary systems of medicine. This contributed greatly to the sharing of medical knowledge between these systems. The Unani physicians who settled in India have added new indigenous drugs to their system. Similarly, modern Ayurvedic texts have included many Unani drugs in Ayurvedic materia medica. With time, these drugs became popular in folklore too. Banafsha is one such drug, which is botanically identified as Viola odorata L. of family Violaceae.

Keywords: Banafsha, Ayurveda, Literature, Classical.