The Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Ayurveda and Systems Medicine — established with the support of Ministry of Ayush and Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The undergoing research on Rheumatoid arthritis involves the understanding of mechanisms of action and efficacy of various Ayurvedic formulations that practitioners have trusted for centuries.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease and one of the pervasive global health issue that affects various joints — the wrists, the knuckles, sometimes the knees. Worldwide, tens of millions of people manage its daily arithmetic of stiffness and inflammation. In India, that burden has long sat quietly alongside a parallel knowledge system, the Ayurveda, documented across centuries of clinical practice and handed down through texts and practitioners. Ayurvedic formulations have shown meaningful effects in traditional use — yet remained, until recently, largely uncharacterised by the methods of modern medicine.
The mandate of the CoE specifically focused upon performing methodologically rigorous investigation into how select formulations interact with the molecular landscape of one of India's most prevalent autoimmune conditions. The questions being asked are: at which targets, through which pathways, by which mechanisms do they exert their effects?
Introduction video of Centre of Excellence
Ongoing Research Activities
The research at the CoE is concentrated upon three preparations — Shunthi Guggulu, Simhanada Guggulu, and Rasnasaptak Kwatha. Each is a multi-ingredient preparation, meaning the chemistry inside a single dose is layered and complex. Before any biological claim can be made, that chemistry must be mapped precisely.
HPLC, mass spectrometry, NMR fingerprinting — the analytical work is foundational. It establishes, beyond ambiguity, what is actually in the preparation. An important finding from this stage: the Ayurvedic concept of Rasapanchak — a classical framework for characterising herbal materials — has been scientifically validated and is now being used to guide fractionation decisions. That is a meaningful outcome in itself. A centuries-old classification system has been given a molecular correlate.
From chemistry, the work moves into computation, using the IMPPAT phytochemical database for mapping bioactive compounds interaction with molecular targets in the RA disease network. Molecular docking studies, Protein-Protein Interaction networks reconstructed, and hub targets identified through topology analysis. ADMET profiles — absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity were modelled using the Deep-PK platform for lead compounds.
Then GROMACS. Molecular dynamics simulations for the selected ligand-target complexes —structural stability through RMSD, RMSF, radius of gyration, and hydrogen bond behaviour over time. The mechanistic rationale, at the computational level, is now documented. Computational findings, however elegant, require biological verification. The experimental programme at this CoE is, by any standard, comprehensive.
Seven-, eleven-, and fifteen-colour flow cytometry panels have been standardised for ex vivo-activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells — a technical achievement that enables detailed immunophenotyping of immune cell populations at multiple levels of granularity. A 21-plex Luminex cytokine assay has been operationalised alongside, allowing simultaneous measurement of 21 immune signalling proteins from a single sample. Together, these platforms resolves a crucial question that how the immune system of an RA patient responds to these formulations.
Also, the extracts of all three formulations have been evaluated for their effects on CD4+ T helper cell polarisation — a central axis of RA pathology. The data covers Th17 cells, the pro-inflammatory drivers of autoimmune tissue damage, as well as FOXP3+ regulatory T cells, which ordinarily act as a brake on excessive immune activation. Cytotoxicity was assessed in both synovial sarcoma cells and healthy PBMCs to establish safety parameters.
in vivo, the DBA/1 collagen-induced arthritis mouse model — the standard experimental model for RA research — in use to evaluate extracts. The readouts are thorough: rotarod performance, grip strength, and gait analysis for functional assessment; bone X-ray, histology, and microCT scanning for structural and tissue-level changes. The findings will be translated into clinically actionable protocols and formal regulatory dossiers. These will feed directly into AYUSH policy frameworks — informing how traditional medicine is evaluated, licensed, and integrated within national healthcare delivery.
India holds a position that no other country quite does: a living tradition of formal medicine, practised continuously over millennia, with a pharmacopoeia of documented formulations and clinical observations that constitutes an extraordinary research resource.
Building the Next Generation of Researchers
An important objective of CoE is to develop training modules based on research methodologies that equip researchers to move fluently between Ayurvedic knowledge systems and contemporary molecular biology — two disciplines that, for mostly historical reasons, have developed in relative isolation from each other.
A researcher trained exclusively in biomedical sciences may lack the conceptual vocabulary to engage meaningfully with classical Ayurvedic texts and formulation logic. A practitioner trained in classical Ayurveda may not have the experimental framework to design or interpret a flow cytometry panel. The training programme is designed to produce researchers who can do both — and who therefore ask better questions than either tradition alone would generate.