Ayurveda in The New Millennium

D. Suresh Kumar was born on September 21, 1949, in the southern Indian province of Kerala, where he received his early education. He obtained a BSc degree in zoology from the University of Kerala (1969) and secured MSc (1972) and PhD degrees (1977) from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. His doctoral thesis was on the hormonal control of oxidative metabolism in reptiles. Thereafter, he spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aston in Birmingham, England, investigating the pancreatic physiology of the rainbow trout. He returned to India in 1980 and joined the Department of Zoology, University of Calicut, Kerala, as pool officer in the scientist pool of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. During his stay there, a chance encounter with some religious persons introduced him to the study of Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India. He undertook a survey of the state of Ayurveda in the province and published his findings in provincial and national weeklies. In 1986, he joined the International Institute of Ayurveda, Coimbatore, as a research officer in the Department of Physiology. From 1986 to 2003, he carried out research on various aspects of Ayurveda. In collaboration with Dr. Y.S. Prabhakar, presently at CDRI Lucknow, he proposed the first mathematical model for the ayurvedic concept of tridosa in the disease state. He also offered a novel definition for the ayurvedic class of medicine arka, based on his study of the Sanskrit text Arkaprakasa. In 2003, he joined Sami Labs Ltd., Bangalore, as senior scientist in the R&D laboratory. He spent several years in the company working on various aspects of new product development. From 2012 to 2016 he worked as head of R&D laboratory of the Ayurveda consortium, Confederation for Ayurveda Renaissance Keralam Ltd., Koratty, Kerala. In January, 2016 he joined Cymbio Pharma Pvt Ltd, Bangalore as Head (New product development) and since May, 2020 he works as Ayurveda consultant. He is the author of Herbal Bioactives and Food Fortification: Extraction and Formulation published by CRC Press (2016). E. mail: dvenu21@yahoo.com