Four-year-old Samyam developed a high fever during the first week of October and was rushed by his parents in the middle of the night to the hospital. As usual in such cases, the child was prescribed heavy doses of antibiotics. By the third day of his antibiotic treatment his condition worsened. He developed pale features and became extremely weak due to the high fever.

Samyam’s second visit was to an Ayurvedic doctor, known as Kabiraj or Vaidya depending on the type of formal education and ancestral training they receive. A look at the child and Kabiraj confirmed that the boy had jaundice.

“The jaundice had actually worsened due to the antibiotics,” said the boy's mother, hiding her anger towards the doctor who prescribed the antibiotics thus jeopardizing the boy’s life and her holidays, as they were in the middle of celebrating Dashain, a ten-day long festival that Nepalis celebrate during the month of October.

“A few doses of proper Ayurvedic medicine calmed him and within two weeks all the symptoms of jaundice had completely disappeared,” the mother continued with a sigh of relief. Ayurveda had come to her rescue as it has done with thousands of other mothers.

Ayurveda, often mistakenly regarded as a form of traditional medication, is a purely scientific practice that originated over 15,000 years before Christ. Ayurveda doctors with their Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) and the more traditionally trained Vaidya and Kabiraj (who may or may not have formal schooling and sometimes represent a century-old family lineage) all claim to rely on the knowledge written and handed down over the time immemorial by Dhanawantari, the god of Ayurvedic medicine.

Ayurveda revolves around the belief that health is the complete state of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being, not merely the absence of diseases. For a person to be healthy and happy, not only should his body be healthy, but his sensory organs, mental status as well as soul should also be healthy.

Nearly 350 years ago, Nepal’s first-ever traditional pharmaceutical company, Singhadurbar Vaidyakhana, was established, thus transforming the traditional method of crude production of herbal remedies to a more advanced one. Nepalis had previously mixed and extracted herbal remedies from the natural treasures of over 750 species of plants abundantly available in the Nepali Himalayas, from the local animals and minerals, and from substances extracted from the sea. Singahadurbar Vaidyakhanal produces some 115 types of Ayurvedic medicine.

According to Dr. Ram Narayan Sah, Managing Director of Singhadurbar Vaidyakhana, materials that comprise the crude drug include herbs, materials from the sea including conch, oyster, coral and pearl, and metals including gold, silver, copper and minerals, in addition to animal fats, cow urine, deer horns and tiger bone. The crude drug is then refined on the constant, mellow heat of firewood and dried dung.

"Ayurvedic medicines produced by cooking on firewood and dried dung over a long period of time are more effective," says Dr. Sah. Although they also have added modern burners and other equipment over the years, they still prefer to use traditional preparation methodologies when it comes to boiling and powder preparation.

According to Dr. Krishna Raj Parajuli, Director of Naradevi Ayurveda Hospital, Ayurvedic medicines are very effective in curing or flushing out viral as well as allergic disorders. Among the 300 patients that they examine every day at Nardevi Ayurveda Hospital, over 75 percent come for the treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract such as jaundice, abdominal infection, liver disease, acidity, etc.

“Nepal will do good if the government pays attention to developing Ayurvedic medicines for viral and allergic attacks and relying on allopathic medicines for bacterial infections,” opines Dr. Parajuli. “We can actually export Ayurvedic medicines for viral and allergic diseases as well as arthritis.”

Dr. Parajuli complains that the government has neglected such an important area where Nepal could do a lot. Carrying a history of around 88 years, Naradevi hospital was established in 1916 by the Rana rulers with only 4 beds, but it now has grown to 100 beds. The problem, however, according to Dr. Parajuli, is the lack of sufficiently trained professional staff. The hospital has 91 staff members, but only eight of them are doctors, eight are Kabiraj and nine are Vaidyas and rest of them are support staff.

“There is a provision of 11 doctors but there are only eight working because they could not find more,” said Dr. Parajuli. He questions the vision of his seniors sitting in the Ministry of Health who appointed 35 BAMS-qualified Ayurvedic doctors as allopathic MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery) doctors because they could not find any MBBS doctors willing to travel to remote rural areas.

The Department of Ayurveda established within the Department of Health Services, Ministry of Health, is responsible for running Ayurvedic hospitals and treatment centers spread all over Nepal. The Department of Ayurveda is the main client of Singhadurbar Vaidyakhana, as it purchases over $150,000 worth of medicines to distribute among the Ayurvedic medicines all over the nation.

There are around 250 Ayurvedic hospitals and treatment centers of which 55 are district level, 14 zonal level, one central, one regional and 179 other Ayurvedic treatment centers are spread across the nation. They are manned by around 285 junior auxiliary level Ayurvedic health workers called Vaidya, 162 tertiary level staff called Kabiraj, 47 BAMS and BAMS MDs and 4 senior level doctors.

According to Dr. Shesha Raj Acharya, Director of the Department of Ayurveda, “A Kabiraj heads the district level hospital, prescribes medicines and is supported by two Vaidyas. In the absence of Kabiraj, Vaidyas are allowed to prescribe and treat the patients.”

The Nepali government provides Rs. 90,000 (around $1300) worth of Ayurvedic medicines to each zonal and district level Ayurvedic hospital and treatment center each year. Similarly, smaller centers receive around Rs. 46,000 (around $650) worth of medicines from the government. According to Dr. Acharya, normally 90 types of medicines are supplied to Ayurveda hospitals and treatment centers.

"We purchase the medicine from Singhadurbar Vaidyakhana but the medicines that are not produced by them or the medicines that they could not supply comes from private manufacturers through competitive bidding by manufacturers licensed by the Department of Drug Administration," said Dr. Acharya.

According to Dr. Acharya, Ayurvedic medicines have been found to be very effective in curing diseases related to acidity and liver diseases such as jaundice, 80 different types of arthritis, allergy, nerve and joint disease, different abdominal problems, urinary diseases, gynecological disorders, etc.

"Ayurvedic medicines such as Bajikar Shakti, Shakti Bardhak Churn (powder), Aswagandha Churn, Satabari Churn etc. are highly efficient in arousing and prolonging sexual vitality," said Dr. Sah. "Some people seem to be [preparing] Ayurvedic medicine, but I must tell you that Ayurvedic medicine is not only produced from herbs but it contains calculated portions of several other elements.”

According to Dr. Acharya, Director of the Department of Ayurveda, although Singhadurbar Vaidyakhana has more than 350 years of history, many of the manuals, recipe books and a huge stock of expensive medicines were reduced to ashes on a fateful night when Singhadurbar caught fire in 1971.

“Only some of the precious recipe books that were in daily use for medicine production were saved," he said.

"I have always relied on Ayurvedic medicine," said Badri Khadga, a patient visiting Dr. Sah with his young daughter for consultation." In my family, everyone relies on Ayurveda and we have been blessed with good health and timely cure of many chronic ailments.”

The government must pay more attention to make Ayurvedic medicine and services available to those who believe in it. Patients complain that they do not have access to good doctors, as they are hand picked and placed in important positions rather than posted in hospitals where they could have easy access, suggests Khadga.

"Antibiotics are the only good products of allopathic medicine,” Khadga opines. He is of the opinion that there should be more diffusion of information regarding Ayurvedic medicine and Ayurvedic hospitals. However, doctors working in the area say they will have difficulty meeting the needs of the people and the market will thus be swarmed with spurious products produced by smaller companies from Nepal and India.

"As it is, our market is already dominated by Ayurvedic medicines manufactured by Indian companies because supply of medicine produced by Singhadurbar Vaidyakhana and other good manufacturers in Nepal is excessively limited," said Dr. Acharya.

According to Dr. Acharya, they do not receive sufficient funds for the promotion of Ayurvedic medicine. They don't even have a laboratory where they can check the chemical content and purity of the medicines provided by private manufacturers.

"We have to rely on trust basically. One particular edible vitamin for example, known as Chawanprass, contains the extractions of 48 different types of herbs and minerals, but we don't really know whether [the samples we receive] contain all that," said Dr. Acharya.

Ayurvedic medicine is believed to have originated thousands of years before Christ, so it is natural that some herbs and animals that were important in the preparation of medicine then might have disappeared completely. Yet another problem the manufacturers of Ayurvedic preparations face is the banning of medicinal herbs and restrictions on animal parts that are important components of the medicines.

Dr. Acharya feels sorry that neither the government nor the people seem to pay enough attention to Ayurvedic medicines today. "They first rush to allopathic doctors because they are looking for quick remedies and come to us at a later stage when the case becomes complicated or chronic."

“I must tell you that the treatment process is the same,” said Dr. Acharya, explaining that Ayurveda relies on pathological and other diagnostic facilities to identify the disease.

“Once the diagnosis is made, we then differentiate the medication methodology and rely on Ayurvedic medicine,” said Dr. Acharya. The whole base of Ayurvedic medicine could be divided into two groups: fibrous products, or herbs, and liquid base. Liquid base is more expensive as it contains the extracts of minerals and expensive metals.