Review on traditional diagnosis and management of snakebite in Ayurveda

Abstract

Toxicology started right from the prehistoric era when man lived in caves of forests. Reptiles originated nearly 240 million years ago, but man was born only nearly about 4 million years back. A man had to survive; he had to fifth against many odds. Snake venom is one of these odds, and treatment of poisonous would have started with the first affliction by poison on man. It is believed that in India, about 2 million people are bitten by snakes annually of which 15,000 to 30000 cases prove fatal. The problem became more after urbanization and deforestation. In the early decades of the 19th century, it has been recorded by the scholars that the mortality rate in snakebite victims was higher chiefly in rural India by the unavailability of emergency medicines and poor transportation facilities. Still, recently this has been changed significantly by providing ASV (anti snake venom) as a primary treatment through hospitals of tertiary levels. Traditional poisoning healing system was also parallel to this in rural areas of south India, especially in the state of Kerala, belief in the Traditional poisoning healing system were the main motives for it. Here an attempt has been made to explore the Traditional Visha chikitsa Sampradaya of Kerala, which is quite different from classical Granthas of Ayurveda (textbook) such as Bruhatrayees along with mainly used formulations in Visha chikitsa.