Dravya Guna: Study of Substance--Qualities and Actions

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Dravya Guna: Study of Substance--Qualities and Actions

by Admin Tue 02 Nov 2010, 3:37 pm

Introduction:
This section introduces the topic of ¨Ayurvedic pharmacology—study of action (karma) of drugs. It is the goal of the module to state, define, and explain the basic terminology of ¨Ayurvedic pharmacology; to show their relationship to physiology so that one can learn to predict the full gamut of actions associated with administration of medicines to enable the student to rationally select appropriate treatments / medicines for remedy or prevention. Also, it is the goal of this section to gain an understanding of the principles of ¨Ayurvedic pharmacology as based in the darsha—Vaisheshikaka (one of the 6 Upangas). In the broadest sense only substance is the cause of action, according to ¨yurveda. Thus this section is a study of substance. But in the strictest sense, the modern notion of physical substance is too limiting for a complete study and understanding of action (karma). Electricity, for example, has no materiality in the modern use of the word—physical, material, etc. Yet we know that it is a powerful agent of change. Hence, for a more complete picture we must accept the modern quantum concept of the equivalence of energy and matter: E = MC² . In a prior section—Medicine—we learned that mantras and gems and rituals are potent / efficient to produce an effect; therefore, we must insist that, while this section seems to deal with material substances—plants, minerals, etc., the deeper significance of Dravya Guna must be expanded to include quantum interactions as well.

Yet another aspect of this section, which is an unique ¨Ayurvedic insight, is the study of drug actions AS they undergo transformation in the body. Different points of interaction yield separate opportunities for action. Digestion and absorption are the cause of these different points of interaction. Some drugs act without transformation, while others reveal their actions after digestion, etc. This understanding is introduced and explained by way of the terminology of: Guna, Rasa, Veerya, Vipaka, Prabhava. These will be defined and explained below but their general import should be understood at this time: as molecular structures continually change their effects/actions in and on the body, physiology may be assumed to change, too. This fact is not much appreciated in the allopathic reductionistic model. Some of these transformations will be studied through the proxy of taste. That is, we will predict future actions by studying and understanding transformations in digestion/metabolism described in terms of tastes. Others will be studied as a special or specific action of a drug—called Prabhava.

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