said groups of Panchamulas (viz., the Svalpa and the Vrihat Panchamulas) are possessed of the virtue of destroying the deranged Vata, while the one standing in the bottom of the list (Trina-Panchamula) is endued with the property of killing the deranged Pittam. Those standing third and fourth in order of enumeration (the Valli and Kantaka Panchamulas) subdue the deranged Kapham.
The groups of medicinal drugs and roots have thus been briefly described, which will be more elaborately dealt with later on in the chapter on Therapeutics.
An intelligent physician should prepare plasters, decoctions, medicated oils, Ghritas (medicated clarified butter) or potions, according to the exigencies of each individual case.*[1] The groups enumerated above should be therapeutically used according to the nature of the deranged humours involved in each individual case. Only two, three or four drugs of the same medicinal group, or a similar number of drugs chosen from the the different groups, or a group of medicinal drugs in its entirety, or in combination with another, should be used according to the indications of any particular case, as the physician, in his discretion, would determine.
Thus ends the thirty-eighth Chapter of the Sutrasthanam in the Sushruta Samhita, which deals with the classification of drugs according to their therapeutical use.
- ↑ *Additional Text:—These drugs may be duly culled in all seasons of the year, and should be stored in a room protected from smoke, blasts of cold, wind and rain.
