Medicine Inventions by India

Medicine[

Ayurvedic and Siddha medicine: Ayurveda and Siddha are ancient and traditional
systems of medicine. Ayurveda dates back to Iron Age India[138] (1st millennium BC) and still
practiced today as a form of complementary and alternative medicine. It means "knowledge
for longevity".[138] Siddha medicine is mostly prevalent in South India. Herbs and minerals are
basic raw materials of the Siddha system which dates back to the period of siddha saints
around the 5th century BC.[139][140]

Cataract surgery: Cataract surgery was known to the Indian physician Sushruta (6th
century BCE).[141] In India, cataract surgery was performed with a special tool called
the Jabamukhi Salaka, a curved needle used to loosen the lens and push the cataract out of
the field of vision.[141] The eye would later be soaked with warm butter and then bandaged.
[141]

Though this method was successful, Susruta cautioned that cataract surgery should only

be performed when absolutely necessary.[141] Greek philosophers and scientists traveled to

India where these surgeries were performed by physicians.[141] The removal of cataract by
surgery was also introduced into China from India.[142]

Cure for Leprosy: Kearns & Nash (2008) state that the first mention of leprosy is
described in the Indian medical treatise Sushruta Samhita (6th century BCE).
[143]

However, The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine holds that the mention of

leprosy, as well as ritualistic cures for it, were described in the Atharva-veda (1500
1200 BCE), written before the Sushruta Samhita.[144]

Plastic surgery: Treatments for the plastic repair of a broken nose are first mentioned in
the Edwin Smith Papyrus,[145] a transcription of an Ancient Egyptian medical text, some of the
oldest known surgical treatise, dated to the Old Kingdom from 3000 to 2500 BC.[146]Plastic
surgery was being carried out in India by 2000 BCE.[147] The system of punishment by
deforming a miscreant's body may have led to an increase in demand for this practice.
[147]

The surgeon Sushruta contributed mainly to the field of plastic and cataract surgery.

[148]

The medical works of both Sushruta and Charak were translated into Arabic language

during the Abbasid Caliphate (750 CE).[149] These translated Arabic works made their way
into Europe via intermediaries.[149] In Italy the Branca family of Sicily and Gaspare Tagliacozzi
of Bologna became familiar with the techniques of Sushruta.[149]

Lithiasis treatment: The earliest operation for treating lithiasis, or the formations of
stones in the body, is also given in the Sushruta Samhita (6th century BCE).[150] The
operation involved exposure and going up through the floor of the bladder.[150]

Visceral leishmaniasis, treatment of: The Indian (Bengali) medical

practitioner Upendranath Brahmachari (19 December 1873 6 February 1946) was
nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for his discovery of
'ureastibamine (antimonialcompound for treatment of kala azar) and a new disease, postkalaazar dermal leishmanoid.'[151] Brahmachari's cure for Visceral leishmaniasis was the urea
salt of para-amino-phenyl stibnic acid which he called Urea Stibamine.[152] Following the
discovery of Urea Stibamine, Visceral leishmaniasis was largely eradicated from the world,
except for some underdeveloped regions.