Chewing trash
Chyavanprash sold in the market is not the actual mixture that ayurvedic texts mention, according to Vaidya Balendu Prakash. Most manufacturers of chyavanprash, he says, are misleading the public and selling a cheap substitute for the classic preparation. The basic formulation is usually modified, and several items that are not mentioned in the ancient texts are added. Chyavanprash today accounts one-third of the total sales of ayurvedic products (around Rs 650 crore) in the country. Named after Chyavan rishi, the original compound, used to boost the immune system, contains as many as 38 ingredients.
According to Balendu Prakash most people taking chyavanprash are not aware that most brands available in the market contain higher amounts of sugar than honey, the original ingredient. A 1-kg pack may contain 570 g sugar and about 60 g honey. He warns diabetics as well as those who are overweight and have high levels of cholesterol in their blood to avoid the commercial preparation. Manufacturers should warn consumers too, says the vaidya, but do not do so to maintain sales. Moreover, he points out, chyavanprash brands usually do not contain dates of manufacture or of expiry. These preparations should not be named after the original compound when they do not follow the ayurvedic texts, he maintains. This view is shared by many scientists.
A K S Rawat and S Mehrotra of the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow, prepared chyavanprash in the laboratory after collecting the original ingredients (or buying them and comparing them with the genuine plants found in their herbarium).
When they compared the quality of their preparation with commercial preparations, marked differences were found. For instance, aonla ( Emblica officinalis )