Regulatory Perspectives of Preservatives in Ayurvedic Kwatha Formulations

In order to recover from disease and achieve healthy status, quality medicines play a pivotal role. The medicine is therefore being given an integral position in triskanda Ayurveda (Hetu, Linga and Oushadi)^[1]. Herbal drugs can be preserved for longer duration in different dosage forms like powder, tablet, leha (linctus) etc^[2]. These formulations have less water content and the reduced water activity resists the growth of micro-organisms. Liquid dosage forms cannot be preserved for longer duration because of growth of micro-organisms^[3]. The maximum shelf life of basic formulations obtained from natural resource like swarasa, kalka and kwatha is 3 hours^[4]. Among these kwatha (coarse powder meant for decoction) is the most common formulation used in Southern India especially in Kerala. As per the classical reference kwatha has to be consumed in lukewarm state^[5] or after it gets cooled on its own^[6] depending upon its utility. This is the very situation the role of preservatives come into the formulations. Kwatha is easily prone to microbial attack and addition of preservatives increase the shelf life of the same. Alternative method to preserve kwatha, is to convert it into different dosage forms like ghana vati, kwatha tablets etc. But the pharmacological action of formulations also depends on the dosage forms in which it is used^[7]. Due to the advent of commercialization longer shelf life has become the need of hour, especially for the preparations like kwatha. Economical as bulk preparations avoided repetition of the procedure, reduce working hours. Read more...