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Ayurvedic cosmeceuticals dates back to the Indus valley civilization and is being used in human society from ancient time. It is now gaining importance in the beautification and to cure the skin ailments. In last 3-4 decades the use of cosmetics has increased exponentially not only among female but also in male population and play an important role in the FMCG sector. In the ancient classical texts of Ayurveda there are several references of numerous medicinal plants and mode of applications of their processed formulation for enhancing complexion, treating acne, treating dark patches, curing boils and carbuncles, etc. Consideration in this field can be helpful in making the herbs more acceptable, precious, life saving and economy promoter for the mankind. This review made a humble effort to make a monograph of ayurvedic plants that were mentioned by ayurvedic luminaries in the field of skincare.

Cissus quadranngularis L. is a ubiquitous plant of the vitaceae family and has multifaceted therapeutic use in the traditional system of medicine in India as well as other countries; it is also used as a nutritive element in several cuisines. It is commonly known as 'Hadjod' (bone-setter) in the native Indian language which highlights it effectiveness in fracture healing. Among other pharmacologic activities, its stem juice is indicated in menstrual disorder; dyspepsia, wound-healing, ariel parts of the plant have been reported to possess anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, hepatoprotective and gastro protective actions. This review article reveals that a wide range of novel phytochemical constituents has been isolated from this plant with diverse chemical properties. The current review deals with the enormous data that has been generated due to recent widespread research into the phytochemical, pharmacological aspect of this plant till December 2015 and also includes reports on its ethno pharmacology.

Background: Arsenic containing drugs Rasamanikya (RM) and Haratal Bhasma (HB) are used in Ayurveda for the treatment of several ailments. They are prepared from raw Haratal (RH) by the distinct Ayurvedic procedure. Hence, proper scientific validation by physico-chemical studies is needed for their acceptability to the modern scientific community. Methods: RM and HB were prepared from RH. Namburi Phased spot test (NST) study was done to check the quality of prepared drugs. Loss on drying, extractive values, ash values was performed over the said two arsenic containing drugs. Sophisticated instrumental analysis like XRD, TEM, TGA, DTA, EDAX, AAS, etc. were studied to understand the crystal profiles, particle size, thermo stability, chemical microanalysis, trace elemental analysis of the drugs respectively. Results: XRD analysis of both RM and RH showed that they were comparatively amorphous in their structure. RH contains trace amount of lead which was confirmed by AAS analysis. TEM Image of HB showed that average particle size is 100nm. It is highly irregular in shape and is homogeneously distributed. While in the case of RM, images revealed that it is highly agglomerated to form small globules. Particles size is about 200nm. EDAX analysis revealed that RH contains Arsenic and Sulphur with wt% of Arsenic is 72.04% and sulphur is 27.96%. In HB wt % of Arsenic is 58.69% and sulphur is 11.69%. RM contains 41.77% wt % of Arsenic and 15.81% of sulphur. Both RM and HB also contain oxygen, carbon, silicon, etc. The DTA plot showed two endothermic peaks in the range of 300 to 600oc in the three samples of RH, HB and RM. Conclusion: Thus an attempt has been made for creating a comparative database of two such drugs by the incorporating modern analytical methods. It can be concluded that there were minimal comparative differences found in the HB and RM but HB showed better results from the standardization point of view.