T ā malak ī — An analytical review

Āyurvedic Materia Medica consists of crude drugs mainly of plant origin and there is considerable variation in the identity of the genuine species of the source plant. Vernacular names of plant signify habitat, morphological characters, useful parts, properties, actions, etc. are the keys of plant identification in Āyurveda. In many cases, one synonym is found for different plants. It is because of similar habitat, gross morphological characters, broad spectrum of therapeutic indices and so on. Hence, by single name/synonym, it is natural to consider more than one plant. Tāmalakī may be considered as an example of this phenomenon. In this study an attempt has been made to designate plant species of Tāmalakī by analyzing different views of some Āyurvedic and modern scholars.