ISSN (Online) : 2277-4572
Author(s): Rakesh Bansidhar Dubey *, Balaji Sopanrao Sawant
Medicinal plants constitute an effective source of traditional and modern medicine. In India, about 80% of the rural population depends on medicinal plants and indigenous system of medicine for primary health care. Adulterants and substitutes are the common malpractices in herbal raw material trade. Adulteration is considered as an intentional addition of foreign substances to increase the weight of the product or to decrease its cost. It may be due to- confusion in vernacular names, lack of knowledge about authentic plants, non availability, similarity in morphology, activity, aroma, careless collection and other unknown reasons. Many Substitutes are mentioned in Ayurvedic texts. In the present article, an attempt has been made to document the list of adulterants and substitutes of the ayurvedic drugs that are currently available and sold in the world market.
