The outlook is not so gloomy now as it was more than twenty-five years ago, when I commenced the study of the subject. The Petit Laboratory established in Bombay was almost the first institution intended to work out the pharmacology of Indian drugs. For this purpose, the late Dr. K. N. Bahadurji was appointed to its charge.
現在的前景並不像二十五年前我開始研究這個學科時那麼黯淡。位於孟買的小實驗室幾乎是第一個旨在研究印度藥物藥理學的機構。為此，已故的KN Bahadurji博士被任命負責該項目。
The Indian Medical Congress held in Calcutta in 1894 recorded the following resolution:—
“That it be recommended, to the consideration of the Government of India that an extended use of indigenous drugs is most desirable.”
1894 年在加爾各答舉行的印度醫學大會記錄了以下決議：
「建議印度政府考慮擴大使用本土藥物是最可取的。」
It was on this resolution that the Government of India appointed the Indigenous Drugs Committee which held their first meeting in Calcutta on January 3rd, 1896. In appointing this Committee, it was stated,
正是根據這項決議，印度政府任命了本土著藥物委員會，該委員會於 1896 年 1 月 3 日在加爾各答舉行了第一次會議。在任命該委員會時指出，
The points to which the Government of India desire more particularly to invite the attention of the Committee, with a view to their careful consideration, are the practicability, as well as the utility, of—
印度政府特別希望提請委員會注意以下幾點，以便認真考慮：
(a) encouraging the systematic cultivation of medicinal plants indige nous to India;
(a) 鼓勵系性種植印度本土藥用植物；
(b) encouraging the increased use in Medical Depots of drugs of known therapeutic value; and
(b) 鼓勵藥廠增加使用具有已知治療價值的藥物；和
(c) sanctioning the manufacture of stable preparations of certain drugs at the Depots.
(c) 核准在藥廠生產某些藥物的穩定製劑。
Regarding the above the Government of India desire that the Committee should further consider, and report their opinion as to the action which would be best calculated to give the suggested encouragement. The Committee should further consider, from a practical point of view, the question of initiating, as a Government measure, experiments to test the reputed therapeutic value of indigenous drugs. The Government of India, as at present advised, are inclined to the opinion that such investigations can more profitably be left to the enterprise of private individuals.
關於上述內容，印度政府希望委員會進一步考慮，並就最能給予建議的鼓勵的行動提出意見。委員會應從實際角度進一步考慮作為一項政府措施啟動實驗以測試土著藥物的著名治療價值的問題。正如目前所建議的，印度政府傾向於認為，將此類調查留給私人企業進行會更有利可圖。
This Committee has so far published two useful reports.
該委員會迄今為止已發表了兩份有用的報告。
The Ayurvedic practitioners are holding conferences every year in different cities of this country, in which medicinal plants and drugs are exhibited. This will greatly advance the cause of the more extensive use of indigenous drugs. The chemistry of Indian medicinal plants is being investigated by several chemists in different laboratories of India, as is evident from their reports published from time to time in journals of Chemical Societies and of other learned institutions. The quarterly journal, named “Food and Drugs,” of Calcutta, now defunct, published several interesting papers on indigenous drugs. There are also a few workers in Tata’s Research Institute, Bangalore, investigating this subject. Fifty thousand rupees have been donated to the Tropical School of Medicine recently established in Calcutta, by His Highness the Maharaja of Durbhanga, and ear-marked for the investigation of the properties and uses of indigenous drugs.
阿育吠陀從業者每年都會在這個國家的不同城市舉行會議，會上展出藥用植物和藥物。這將大大推動本土藥物更廣泛使用的事業。印度不同實驗室的幾位化學家正在對印度藥用植物的化學成分進行研究，從他們不時在化學學會和其他學術機構的期刊上發表的報告中可以看出這一點。加爾各答的季刊《食品與藥物》現已停刊，發表了幾篇有關本土藥物的有趣論文。班加羅爾塔塔研究所的一些工作人員也在研究這個主題。杜邦加君主殿下最近向加爾各答建立的熱帶醫學院捐贈了五萬盧比，並專門用於研究本土藥物的特性和用途。
But at present there is no Pharmaceutical Society or School of Pharmacy in this country to carefully study and investigate the subject of indigenous drugs. The establishment of such an institution is highly desirable; so also of farms of medicinal plants. Regarding the growing of medicinal plants, Mr. F. A. Miller writes in the Journal “American Pharmaceutical Association III, pp. 34-38” that the time has arrived to reduce the work of drug cultivation to an exact science and to determine the commercial possibilities of the most promising forms, in the same manner as has been done in agricultural and other economic farms.
但目前國內還沒有藥學會或藥學院對本土藥物這一課題進行認真研究與調查。建立這樣一個機構是非常可取的；藥用植物農場也是如此。關於藥用植物的種植， FA Miller 在《美國藥學協會 III》雜誌上寫道，34-38“現在已經到了將藥物種植工作簡化為一門精確的科學並確定最有前途的形式的商業可能性的時候了，就像在農業和其他經濟農場中所做的那樣。
The present war, as mentioned before, emphasises the necessity of extensively growing medicinal plants especially in India where, with little difficulty, economic plants of all lands can be cultivated.
如前所述，當前的戰爭強調了廣泛種植藥用植物的必要性，特別是在印度，在那裡，幾乎所有土地都可以種植經濟植物。
The establishment of medicinal farms in well selected localities will exercise scientific control over the cultivation of medicinal herbs and plants. Regarding the advantages of conducting a farm of this nature Messrs. Burroughs Wellcome and Co., who have established such a one, write:—
“1. A drug may be treated or worked up immediately it has been collected.
“2. Herbs may be dried, if necessary, directly they are cut, before fermentation and other deteriorative changes have set in.
“3. Freedom is ensured from caprice on the part of collectors, who, in gathering wild herbs, are very difficult to control in the matter of adulteration, both accidental and intentional.
“4. Opportunity is provided to select and cultivate that particular strain of a plant which has been found by chemical and physiological tests to be the most active, and which gives the most satisfactory preparations.
在精心挑選的地點建立藥用農場將對藥材和植物的種植進行科學控制。關於經營這種性質的農場的優勢，先生。巴勒斯•威康公司 (Burroughs Wellcome and Co.) 建立了這樣一個機構，寫道：
1. 收集到的藥物可以立即處理或處理。」
2. 如有必要，在發酵和其他惡化變化發生之前，可以將草藥直接乾燥，直接切割。
3. 採集者的隨意性確保了自由，他們在採集野生草藥時很難控制意外或故意的摻假問題。
4. 提供了選擇和培育特定植物株的機會，透過化學和生理測試發現該植物株是最活躍的，並且可以提供最令人滿意的製劑。
We know there are many plants mentioned by Hindu medical authors which are not procurable now. We have to refer to such names as those of Kākolī, Kṣira-kākolī, Medhā, Mahā-medhā, Jīvaka, Ṛṣabha &c. Perhaps this extinction of valuable medicinal plants of ancient India is well explained by what Mr. J. L. Stingel writes in the American Journal of Pharmacy for 1912 (pp. 299 et seq) regarding Hydrastis that with the progress of civilisation the plant has diminished. He says that “the scarcity of this valuable drug cannot be entirely attributed to lack of plants or to extinction, but to other conditions, which tend to prevent identification at the time of collection.” This shows also the necessity of rational cultivation, and hence of medicinal farms. Many have been disappointed from the use of indigenous drugs for which the cause is not far to seek.
我們知道印度醫學作家提到的許多植物現在都買不到了。我們必須提到 Ākāli、Kṣira-kākoli、Medhā、Mahā-medha、Jīvaka、Ṛṣabha 等名字。也許古印度名貴藥用植物的滅絕可以很好地解釋。JL Stingel 在1912 年的《美國藥學雜誌》（第 299 頁及以下）中寫道，隨著文明的進步，這種植物已經減少。他說：
「這種珍貴藥物的稀缺不能完全歸因於植物的缺乏或滅絕，而是歸因於其他條件，這些條件往往無法在收集時進行鑑定。」
這也說明了合理種植的必要性，進而說明了藥用農場的必要性。許多人對本土藥物的使用感到失望，原因並不遙遠。
A writer in the Calcutta Review for 1869 (p: 199) said:—
“The distrust of bazar medicines is, we are convinced, well warranted by facts. In many cases bazar medicines are simple trash. Let any one only look at the system of storage followed in a pansari’s shop, and one very evident reason of this will be apparent. His wares are of all degrees of staleness, the stock of many of them inherited from his father or grandfather and long ago inert. Stoppered bottles are things unknown, and all substances are alike stowed in bags or earthen vessels, exposed to every variation of the atmosphere in respect of heat and moisture, and to the attack of every kind of insect. * Many are adulterated, and as a matter of course, none are labelled.”
1869 年《加爾各答評論》 （第 199 頁）中的一位作家說：
「我們相信，對市場藥品的不信任是有事實根據的。在許多情況下，市面上的藥品都是簡單的垃圾。只要任何人看一下雜貨店的儲存系統，就會明白其中一個非常明顯的原因。他的商品有各種程度的陳舊，其中許多是從他的父親或祖父那裡繼承來的，很久以前就已經不再使用了。塞住的瓶子是未知的東西，所有物質都同樣存放在袋子或陶器中，暴露在空氣中熱量和濕度的各種變化中，並受到各種昆蟲的攻擊。* 很多都是摻假的，當然，沒有一個被貼上標籤。」
The above also shows the necessity of medicinal farms and the establishment of depots for the supply of reliable preparations of indigenous drugs.
上述情況也顯示了建立藥用農場和建立倉庫以供應可靠的本土藥物製劑的必要性。
It is the bounden duty of educated Indians to do all that lies in their power for the proper study of Indian medicinal plants and drugs. In 1879, the Calcutta Review wrote:—
“The resuscitation of Indian medical science is a noble and useful work which ought to be performed by educated Hindoos. It is perfectly true that Indian drugs ought to be largely studied and used by medical practitioners in this country. European medical men fully admit this truth and some of them have labored earnestly and assiduously to accomplish this object. But it is easy to understand that the efforts of foreigners must be necessarily imperfect and unproductive of adequate results. Upon educated Indian members of the profession, therefore, devolves this great and solemn duty, for it is they alone who can discharge it adequately and well. In India the foreign and the indigenous systems ought to be read together if full benefit is to be derived from either.”