Department of Kriya Sharir, Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, UP, India.
Hist Philos Life Sci. 2023 Mar 22;45(2):13. doi: 10.1007/s40656-023-00559-6.
Ayurveda is a traditional system of healthcare that is native to India and has a rich documented literature of its own. Most of the historians agree that the documentation of core Ayurveda literature took place approximately in between 400 BCE and 200 CE, while acknowledging that the roots of its theoretical framework can be traced back to a much earlier period. For multiple reasons many significant contributions of Ayurveda literature to various streams of biological and medical sciences have remained under-recognized while recounting the historical milestones of development. This is true in the context of the physiology of digestion and metabolism too. In this communication we try to reconstruct a picture of the processes of digestion and metabolism as had been understood by ancient Ayurveda scholars. Though this understanding was primitive and insufficient in many ways, we argue that this deserves to be documented and acknowledged. To help with grasping the importance of these contributions, we juxtapose them with the corresponding insights pertaining to this subject reported by prominent western scientists. The major contributions of Ayurveda that have been recounted in this paper are those related to the description of three distinct phases of digestion (Avasthapaka), multiple sets of transformative entities acting at different levels of metabolism (Agni), and the roles ascribed to various internal and external factors in executing these physiological functions.
阿育吠陀是一种源自印度的传统医疗体系，拥有丰富的文献记载。大多数历史学家认为，核心阿育吠陀文献的编纂大约发生在公元前 400 年至公元 200 年之间，但也承认其理论框架的根源可以追溯到更早的时期。由于多种原因，阿育吠陀文献对生物和医学科学的许多重要贡献在叙述发展的历史里程碑时仍未得到充分认可。在消化和新陈代谢的生理学方面也是如此。在本通讯中，我们试图重建古代阿育吠陀学者所理解的消化和新陈代谢过程的图景。尽管这种理解在许多方面是原始和不足的，但我们认为这值得记录和承认。为了帮助理解这些贡献的重要性，我们将其与著名西方科学家就同一主题报告的相应见解并列。本文中所叙述的阿育吠陀的主要贡献是与消化的三个不同阶段（Avasthapaka）、在不同代谢水平上起作用的多组转化实体（Agni）以及各种内部和外部因素在执行这些生理功能中的作用的描述有关。
