Scientific Synopsis of Vāgbhaṭa’s Classic Ayurveda Treatise Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha

Born on 14 September 1964 at Palakkad in Kerala, Dr. N. K. M. Ikbal graduated with Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery degree from Vaidyaratnam P.S. Variar Ayurveda College, Kottakkal in 1988. He successfully completed Masters in Ayurveda (M.D.) from Government Ayurveda Medical College, Bangalore University in 1992 and completed doctoral studies leading to Ph.D. from Sree Sankaracharya University, Kalady, Kerala in 2000. Dr Ikbal served a short stint (1992) as Lecturer in Ayurveda College, Coimbatore, later joining Vaidyaratnam Ayurveda College, Thrissur in 1993. He worked as Professor and Head of the Department of Śalyatantra with 30 years of active presence in the academy, research and profession. He had worked as visiting professor and external examiner for the Ayurveda Degree Program at Thames Valley University, London (1999 - 2006) and visiting faculty at Chung Bo Institute, Seoul, South Korea (2006). He has published original research papers and served as the Executive Editor of the Ayurveda quarterly Vaidyaratnam Journal of Ayurvedic Medicine (V-JAM). Dr. Ikbal is the founder member of National Suśruta Association (Association of Ayurvedic Surgeons of India). He has participated in several national and international seminars as key speaker on topics of interest ranging from immunology, rheumatology and surgical specialties in Ayurveda. He contributed the opening chapter What we learn from the history of Ayurveda in Ayurveda in the New Millennium- Emerging Roles and Future Challenges, published by CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida (2020). He is the co-author of Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya – A scientific synopsis of the classic Ayurveda text published by CRC Press (2023). Dr. Ikbal superannuated on 30 April, 2024 and since then works as an Ayurveda consultant.Dr. G. R. Arun Raj was born in November 1985 in Kollam, Kerala state, India. He earned a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery degree from Kerala University in 2009 and M.D. in Kaumārabhṛtya (Ayurveda Pediatrics) from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore in 2014. He was identified as expert by Ministry of AYUSH, Goverment of India for developing Technical Guidelines to be integrated into Poshan Abhiyan (National Nutrition Mission) of AYUSH in March 2021. He is editor / associate editor of 7 international peer reviewed indexed journals and adjudicated about 92 research papers till date for PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, Web of Science, University Grants Commission care-listed journals. He was the principal investigator of a major research project on spastic cerebral palsy sponsored by Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. He has also completed four research projects from 2018 to 2021. He has published 96 papers in various national and international journals. He has also presented 48 papers in different national and international seminars. He contributed a chapter entitled "Nutraceuticals and functional foods" in Recent Progress in Medicinal Plants published by Studium Press LLC, Houston, Texas in 2016. He contributed the chapter "Biological effects of Ayurvedic formulations" in the book Ayurveda in the New Millennium, published by CRC Press (2020). He is the co-author of Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya: A Scientific Synopsis of the Classic Ayurveda Text published by CRC Press in 2023. Currently, he holds the position of Associate Professor and Pediatric Consultant, Department of Kaumārabhṛtya, Parul Institute of Ayurved and Research, Parul University, Vadodara, Gujarat.D. Suresh Kumar was born on 21 September 1949, in the southern Indian province of Kerala, where he received his early education. He earned a B.Sc. degree in zoology from the University of Kerala (1969) and secured M.Sc. (1972) and Ph.D. degrees (1977) from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. His doctoral thesis was on the hormonal control of oxidative metabolism in reptiles. Thereafter, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aston in Birmingham, England, investigating the pancreatic physiology of the rainbow trout. He returned to India in 1980 and joined the Department of Zoology, University of Calicut, Kerala, as pool officer in the scientist pool of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. During his stay there, a chance encounter with some religious persons introduced him to the study of Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India. He undertook a survey of the state of Ayurveda in the province and published his findings in provincial and national weeklies. In 1986, he joined the International Institute of Ayurveda, Coimbatore, as a research officer in the Department of Physiology. From 1986 to 2003, he carried out research on various aspects of Ayurveda. In 1993 he proposed the first mathematical model for the Ayurvedic concept of tridōṣa in the disease state. He also offered a novel definition for the Ayurvedic class of medicine arka, based on his study of the Sanskrit text Arkaprakāśa. In 2003, he joined Sami Labs Ltd, Bangalore, as a senior scientist in the R&D laboratory. He spent several years in the company working on various aspects of new product development. From 2012 to 2015, he worked as head of the R&D laboratory of the Ayurveda consortium, Confederation for Ayurveda Renaissance Keralam Ltd, Koratty, Kerala. In January 2016, he joined Cymbio Pharma Pvt Ltd, Bangalore as Head of New Product Development, and since July 2019 he works as an Ayurveda consultant. He is the author of Herbal Bioactives and Food Fortification: Extraction and Formulation (2016), co-author of Aṣṭāṅgahṛdaya: A Scientific Synopsis of the Classic Ayurveda Text (2023) and editor of Ayurveda in the New Millennium (2020) published by CRC Press

• Chapter 1 Introduction to Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha Chapter 2 Initiation of the student and medical ethicsChapter 3 Medical protocol for protection of the kingChapter 4 How to stay away from diseasesChapter 5 Cardinal principles of longevityChapter 6 The human body- From conception to deathChapter 7 Surgical measuresChapter 8 Diagnosis and treatment of diseases Chapter 9 Medicinal ingredients in Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha Chapter 10 Food fortification strategies adopted in AṣṭāṅgasaṅgrahaChapter 11 Comparison of chapters of Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha and AṣṭāṅgahṛdayaChapter 12 Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha: Harbinger of Ayurveda renaissance Glossary of Sanskrit Terms