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The discovery process using ethnopharmacology is composed of several stages which are as follows:

The scientific study of traditional plant medicines is considered as a major part of Ethnopharmacology which is defined as "The scientific study of materials used by ethnic and cultural groups as medicines". The isolation of opium alkaloids in the early 19th century was a key event in the development of modern pharmacy.

 Administrative Agencies
• Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani drugs Technical Advisory Board, which advises the central government and the state governments on the technical matters arising and to carry out the other functions assigned to it.

 Manufacture of Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani drugs
• At the moment the Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani drugs are required to be manufactured according to the formulae prescribed in the First Schedule to the Act.
• A license is necessary for the manufacture of these drugs which are required to be manufactured from genuine and properly identified raw materials.

Prohibition of manufacture and sale of certain Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani Drugs

According to the section 33 – EEC of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, the government may specify in the official gazette, no person, either by himself or by any other person on his behalf shall –
 Manufacture
a. Manufacture for sale or for distribution
i. Any misbranded, adulterated or spurious Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani drug;
ii. Any patent or proprietary medicine, unless there is displayed in the prescribed manner on the label or container thereof the true list all the ingredients contained in it; and
iii. Any Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani drug in contravention of any of the provisions of the act or any rule made thereunder;
b. Sell, stock or exhibit or offer for sale or distribute any Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani drug which has been manufactyred in contravention of any of the provisions of this act or any rule made thereunder;

A recent amendment of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act has made some of its provisions applicable to the Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs which are defined to include medicines for internal or external use in human beings for diagnosis, prevention, mitigation or treatment of diseases and which are mentioned in and are manufactured exclusively in accordance with the formulae described in literature listed in Schedule 1 to the Act.

Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and Rules 1945 (Provisions related to Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani Drugs):
In the Drugs and Cosmetics Amendment Act 1982 definitions of misbranded, adulterated and spurious Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs have been included which are exactly parallel to the definitions of corresponding allopathic drugs.

1.Misbranded Drugs: An Ayurvedic, Siddha or Unani drug shall be deemed to be misbranded

I am a lecturer in a pharmacy college and I teach pharmacognosy. As my academic performance was quite good, people used to frequently ask me that why i have taken this subject instead of comparatively more important ones like chemistry or pharmaceutics. I would respond by saying that I have taken ths subject out of choice and not by force. I have been fascinated by plants right from my childhood days and as I grew up I realised the importance of plants in almost every aspect of our lives.

Herbal medicine is the oldest form of healthcare known to mankind. Plant and plant products form an integral part of the development of modern civilisation. Many important drugs in use today are derived from plants or from starting molecules of plant origin like digoxin, vincristine, reserpine to name a few.

This is my first blog and I am pretty excited about it. Instead of going through the usual way of selecting a topic related to the pharmacy field I thought of penning down a few of my own experiences which can in a way be related to pharmacy. I have a three year old son and for obvious reasons children of this age are pretty naughty and inquisitive. One day I was teaching him the alphabets along with the pictures of the word they start with , for example A for Apple, B for Ball and so on. Suddenly he started becoming restless and I enquired the reason from him. He asked me "Mom, the letter A is there and the picture of the apple is there but where is 'for' in the book? I was quite surprised when he asked me this question as i was never bothered to think about it during my entire lifetime. He was asking me something abstract or something which I couldn't explain.