Ayurveda single drug therapy for Prameha in Nighantu Sahitya: A review

Diabetes is one of the most rapidly increasing diseases in the contemporary context. Its swift global raise indicates that its causes are possibly closely associated with lifestyle and eating habits in the general population. The handling of Diabetes is majorly management and not curative in nature. Understanding the management of diabetes, so far, has not been very promising either in the prevention of its incidence or its complications.
The science of Ayurveda provides a huge repertoire of anti-diabetic drugs which needs further exploration. The descriptions of Prameha vis-à-vis Diabetes mellitus and its treatment are scattered in different classics of Ayurveda. This is an attempt to compile the information available from Nighantu Sahitya (the section of Ayurveda literature that predominantly deals with drugs, their morphology, properties, and actions) for documenting single drugs mentioned for Prameha Roga (mostly correlated to Diabetes Mellitus) and their potential in handling the disease. A total of 142  plant sourced drugs with Pramehahara activity enlisted from 12 Nighantus are included here. The paper accentuates the recognized sources of those single drugs, the botanical classification and their anti-diabetic potential. On observation, the members of Fabaceae were found to be most frequent in occurrence and hence has been a prime focus in this paper. A primary glance showed many drugs that are not in wide use for Prameha are enlisted here thus opening newer arenas for Diabetic research and clinical practice.