Just when I had ventured in my profession, I recall seeing a commercial featuring an evergreen Bollywood star on the invigorating properties of a pill whose sole ingredients were two herbs — Ashwagandha and Ginseng.

I was intrigued and I followed up on the two herbs but particularly on Ashwagandha. It has been found that almost everything that Ayurveda has to say about this herb has been backed in recent times by hard scientific evidence emanating from our country as well as from the West. 

Interestingly, many physicians in our country who have been trained in the Western system of medicine do not seem to acknowledge the virtues of Ashwagandha. My request to them is to pay attention to the wisdom in Ayurveda that has been accumulated over the centuries just as they pay heed to ideas emanating from other modern sources.

In many countries in Europe and particularly in US, there is an ever increasing scientific interest at the knowledge embodied in the Ayurveda. Ashwagandha, in particular, has aroused enormous interest and even the Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre has acknowledged its potential benefits for cancer treatment.

Although Ginseng and Ashwaganda are botanically unrelated, at a basic level of perception they seem to impart similar benefits — vigour and strength. Hence, Ashwagandha has often been called the Indian Ginseng. The two are quite different in their chemistry and in the health benefits that they provide.

Ashwagandha, which if literally translated means “redolent of a horse”, has many beneficial properties as recent studies have corroborated. Traditionally, Ashwagandha was prescribed after an illness in order to strengthen the immune system. It is also an ingredient in the Ayurvedic tonic Chyawanprash, which also serves as food supplement.

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