Unani System of Medicine is an important segment of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy). In 20th and 21st century due to side effects of synthetic drugs, there is an increasing interest in ASU (Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani) medicine. At present the adulteration of the herbal drugs is the burning problem in ASU herbal industry and it has caused a major problem in the research on commercial natural products. The deforestation and extinction of many species and incorrect identification of many plants has resulted in adulteration and substitution of raw drugs. The future development and analysis of herbs is largely dependent upon reliable methodologies for correct identification, standardization and quality assurance of ASU drugs. In India normally the contamination/adulteration in food/crude drugs is done either for financial gain or due to carelessness and lack of proper hygienic conditions of processing, storing, transportation and marketing. Medicinal plants constitute an effective source of traditional and modern medicine. Adulteration is considered as an intentional addition of foreign substances to increase the weight of the product or to decrease its cost. It may be due to various factors like confusion in vernacular names, lack of knowledge about authentic plants, non availability of genuine drugs, similarity in morphology, activity, aroma, careless collection and other unknown reasons. This article throws a light on adulteration, types, common market adulterants in ASU medicines and prescribed Prevention methods.

Background: Occupational safety and health is concerned with protecting the health, safety and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. It is a duty of every employer to ensure that all its employees remain safe at all times in order to boast its production activities. Objective: The study assessed the supply, use of personal protective equipment and factors that may affect its usage. Methods: The study is a descriptive cross-sectional study. There were 250 respondents from registered medium scale manufacturing industries in Anambra State. The sample was selected using a multistage sampling technique. The number of respondents from each factory was allocated proportionately according to size of the individual factors. Data was collected from October 2013 to May 2014. A pretested interviewer administered question was used. Analysis was done using statistical packages for social sciences version 20. Level of significance was set at 5%. Result: The supply of personal protective equipment was low as only hand gloves was always supplied (100%) while face mask and ear plug was never supplied. Use of personal protective equipment was assessed as never used, sometimes used or always used. More respondents have never used most of the personal protective equipment as 83.2%, 21%, 70.7%, 77%, 77.7%, 79.9%, 73.2% have never used helmets, hand gloves, goggles, safety boots, face marks, ear plug and apron respectively. The workers reported inadequate knowledge of use of personal protective equipment (42.4%) and unavailability of equipment as the major reason for poor use of personal protective equipment. Conclusion: The poor use of personal protective equipment, result from poor knowledge of its applicability and lack of the personal protective equipment. Recommendation: Government and relevant agencies should set up laws and enforce the supply of personal protective equipment by management of factories. Factories should employ a factory inspector who will enforce the compulsory use and also educate employees on the use and benefits of usage.

Rancidity of several anti-psoriatic drugs of AYUSH (Ayurveda & Siddha) were studied and the ill effects of acid value was established by free radical scavenging assay, nitric oxide inhibition, anti-glycation, anti-angiogenesis and fibroblast toxicity. Our findings clearly show that rancidity not only produced severe side effects but also modified the therapeutic constituents from herbal source thus making the Ayush preparations more harmful to the psoriatic patients than as remedial. Several anti-psoriatic oils were compared with Dr. JRK’s 777 oil and Psorolin oil. Findings clearly show that the Dr. JRK’s 777 oil and Psorolin oil is the best, safe and effective drug for psoriasis than many other Ayush oils available in the market. Details are presented in the paper.