Dhoopan: Therapeutics of Herbal Fumigation in Ayurvedic texts

Abstract

Herbal fume inhalation is a therapeutic module mentioned in detail in Ayurvedic literature for therapeutic purposes. Different herbal fume inhalation varieties are mentioned in Ayurvedic texts i.e. Dhoom-Nasya (herbal fumes inhaled through the nose), Dhompana (herbal fumes taken through the nose or the mouth and exhaled through the mouth) and Dhoopan (treatment using herbal fumes in total). The present manuscript studied the selected portions of Ayurvedic texts to understand the various therapeutic purposes of Dhoopan described in Ayurveda. All classical Ayurvedic texts mentioned some form of herbal fume inhalation for therapeutics. For example for disease treatment, for health prevention, for mental illness, for fever, for child growth, for diseases of ears, eyes, teeth, etc. Besides therapeutics, dhoopan is also helpful for environmental benefits such as killing bugs, purifying the environment, etc. The study gives perspective and argues ways to identify components mentioned in the Ayurvedic formula especially where some non-herbal meanings were derived from the classic Sanskrit texts; hence opening-up a new dimension of research required for reviving the ancient methods given in Ayurvedic texts.