Ayurvedic physicians have tremendous faith in the beneficial effect of the plant brahmi on person of old age. It is being used widely throughout India.
There are, in fact, two plants which are being used ad brahmi, the benefits of which have been listed by the great Ayurvedic physician Charak, who clearly stated in the first century that brahmi is very effective in preventing the decreased mental performance seen is many people of advanced age, in preventing loss of memory and in enabling old people to organize their thoughts and express these clearly. These plants are Bacopa moniera which goes under the names of brahmi and nirbrahmi and Centella asiatica commonly known as the Indian pennywort.
It may seem a long time from the time of Charak to the present day but it is only a few years ago that the Central Drugs Research Institute, Lucknow, after extensive experimental research on animals conducted the first clinical trials on the effect of Bacopa on memory. More clinical trials are needed to confirm the experimental findings that the plant extract from the stem and leaves improves one’s memory.
Readers may find the type of experiments carried out on rats to demonstrate this activity interesting. One of the experiments is to put a rat or group of rats in a large cage with a small opening in one corner which would enable the rat to leave the cage. Rats are put into the café and they are subjected to uncomfortable electric shocks. When they find the exit-perhaps accidentally – they get into another adjacent cage and the shocks cease. It has been clearly seen that rats to whom brahmi had been administered found the exit sooner than the control rats. They appear to remember better after their early experience that they can avoid the uncomfortable electric shocks by leaving cage.
Besides the use of this plant for memory it is used in patients of other disease of the central nervous system and as a tonic. It is very difficult to assess these effects but some clinical trials have been carried out. Dr Appa Rao and his colleagues published three papers on Mandookaparni, the Sanskrit name of Centella asiatica.
The most interesting of these papers, published in volume eight of the Journal for Research on Indian Medicine in 1973, showed that the plant drug, when administered for a period of twelve weeks to a group of thirty mentally retarded children, improved the mental ability and the behavioural patterns of these children. The design of the trial was double blind controlled trial which has also been referred in the book Medicinal Plants of India, volume one published by the Indian Council or Medical Research.
Brahmi is also used to enhance the general well being and the quality of life. It has been used for this purpose for generations. However, research methodology has made great advances in the last two decades. Modern techniques of biotechnology and immunological protective systems decrease in old age and whether plants such as brahmi could prevent such degeneration. In one article mention was made of some Korean plants which could perhaps prevent ageing. The western world, particularly USA, are using another plant gilboa for improving the capacity of old people to face old age and its problems. Brahmi could be India’s contribution to the world in this endeavour.
However, to be able to do so certain immediate steps need to be taken particularly in view of the impending changes which will take place in patent regulation in the coming years. A national task force on brahmi comprising investigators and scientists from the different systems of medicine should be carefully and critically assessed. Future work to be carried out should be clearly described and such work, should be generously funded. Efforts should be made to bring in one or two pharmaceutical concerns interested in drugs for the central nervous system. This kind of dynamic approach could yield rich intellectual and financial dividends and provide to the population a new drug from our old medicines used in Ayurveda.
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