Beginnings of drug therapy: drug therapy in ancient India.

Four thousand years ago, the medical knowledge of the Indian subcontinent was codified into a system called the Ayurveda. Ayurveda remains a vital system of medicine and drug therapy in India and elsewhere. Plant alkaloids are the primary active ingredients of Ayurvedic drugs. Today the pharmacologically active ingredients of many Ayurvedic medicines are being identified and their usefulness in drug therapy being determined.