Status of Ayurvedic Medicines Available in the Markets of Nepal

Abstract

A large number of Ayurvedic medicines have been being used in Nepal since the time immemorial. But, there is no mechanism for standardization and monitoring system developed so far to control the quality of these medicines within the country. There are many issues regarding the quality, safety and efficacy of these medicines which may be due to various problems prevalent in their production, prescription and marketing practices. Hence, substandard Ayurvedic medicines might have been brought to the market which is not only decreasing faith to the Ayurvedic medicines but also creating a risk of public health hazard and defaming Ayurvedic physicians and Ayurveda system as a whole. This study was designed to explore status of Ayurvedic medicines available in the Nepalese market in terms of packing, label and general properties of some common medicines and to suggest possible steps for controlling and assuring the quality of these medicines. Criteria for sample selection were simple and judgment. Three cities of Kathmandu valley and six other densely populated cities to represent all development regions were selected on the basis of number of Ayu medicine stores and transaction of medicines in those cities. Lists of top selling 10 Ayu medicines were collected from 87 medicine stores and detail list of information was collected from 26 stores among those.