In a major breakthrough linking the country’s ancient wisdom with modern science, a first genome-wide study has established correlation between Ayurvedic Prakriti classifications (Vata, Kapha and Pitta) with genomic diversity.
Scientists from the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), under the Union Science and Technology Ministry, along other national research institutes, after analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), have found that about 52 genes might be responsible for specifying the individual’s doshas or prakritis defined under the Ayurveda system.
“Ayurvedic physicians believe that there are three doshas or biological energies found in the human body. Ancient Indians believed that everything that we see is made up of five elements — space, air, fire, water and earth.
“Vata is related to elements of space and air; pittha is related to elements of fire and water and kapha is related to elements of water and earth. Each individual would have different levels of these three doshas, hence the diversity. However, each person can be classified, belonging to one or the other type, if one of the doshas predominates,” explained an official from the Ministry about the study.
However, whether such phenotypic classification has any molecular basis has been a matter of debate for some time. A few groups attempted to answer this question and found some correlation when they looked at one or two specific genes. However, the association of genomic variations with Prakriti classification was lacking.
Thus, the mega programme to assess the link doshas (Prakarti) with the genome has been under taken by a research team headed by Dr Thangaraj at the CCMB. The results have been encouraging.
“Well-trained Ayurvedic physicians screened about 3400 people and the same sets of people were also screened by software called AyuSoft developed by C-DAC, Bangalore,” said an official from the Ministry.
People whose Prakriti was in concurrence between the assessment by the ayurvedic physician and by AyuSoft were recruited for the study.
“Their blood samples were collected by respective participating labs. Isolation of DNA and genomic studies were carried out at CCMB using Affymetrix 6.0 SNP chip. This chip brings out single nucleotide difference in the genome among the tested samples. When the data is plotted, interestingly they fell into three groups, establishing the molecular basis for ancient classification,” said the official.
These studies have been recently published in journal Science Reports of Nature group of publications.