Ayurveda, the ancient system of medicine from India, offers a vast repository of therapeutic knowledge accumulated over thousands of years. In recent decades, modern drug discovery has increasingly turned to Ayurveda for lead compounds, therapeutic principles, and holistic approaches. This review explores the integration of Ayurvedic knowledge with contemporary drug discovery tools such as reverse pharmacology, phytochemical analysis, and molecular docking. This synergy expedites the identification of bioactive molecules and helps elucidate their mechanisms of action. Key examples of successful leads include curcumin from turmeric, withaferin A from ashwagandha, and guggulsterone from guggul, which have shown significant antiinflammatory, anticancer, and hypolipidemic properties, respectively. While challenges such as standardization of herbal extracts, quality control, and regulatory barriers persist, they are being addressed by scientific innovation. Emerging trends like AI-assisted phytochemical screening and nanotechnology for enhanced herbal drug delivery are paving the way for a new generation of therapeutics. The paper concludes that Ayurveda, when validated through a rigorous scientific lens, offers an underutilized but highly promising pathway for developing innovative, safe, and effective drugs to meet global health challenges.
sayyad et al. (Tue,) studied this question.