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METABOLISM IN INDIAN PHYSIOLOGY
Posted Date: 17 Jan 2008 Resource Type: Articles/Knowledge Sharing Category: General
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Posted By: SajithkumarS Member Level: Diamond
Rating:  Points: 5
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The food that we eat contains five classes of organic compounds. From their
radicals or predominant elements, the substances are named Earth-compounds,
Ap-compounds, Tejas-compounds, Vayu-compounds, and Akasa-compounds. The
Earth-compounds supply the hard, formed matter of the body, the
Tejas-compounds give the animal heat (or the metabolic heat), the
Vayu-compounds are the sources of the motor-force in the organism, the
Ap-compounds furnish the watery parts of the organic fluids, and the
Akasa-compounds contribute to the finer etheric essence which is the vehicle
of the conscious life. Roughly speaking, the Earth-compounds answer to the
nitrogen compounds in the food, the Tejas-compounds to the hydro-carbons
(heating-producing), and the Vayu-compounds to the carbo-hydrates (dynamic).
The Ap- compounds are the watery parts of food and drink. The flesh, for
example, is a tissue composed principally of the Earth-compounds; the fat, of
the Earth-and Ap-compounds; the bones, of Earth-, Vayu-, and Tejas-compounds.
Different operations of the metabolic heat (perhaps different digestive fluids
are also meant) are required to digest the different substances in the food.
The course of metabolism is described as follows. The entire alimentary canal
is called the Mahasrotas (the great channel). The food goes down the gullet
by the action of the bio-motor force, the Prana Vayu. In the stomach the food
becomes mixed up, first with a gelatinous mucus which has a saccharine taste,
and then gets acidulated by the further chemical action of a digestive
juice,(evidently the gastric juice is meant). Then the bio-motor force, the
Damana Vayu, begins to act, and drives down the chyme, by means of the Grahani
Nadi, to the Pittasaya (duodenum, lit. bile-receptacle), and thence to the
small intestines. In these, the bile (or rather the digestive substance in
the bile, as opposed to the colouring element) acts on the chyme and converts
the latter into chyle, which has at first a katu taste (pungency). This chyle
contains in a decomposed and metamorphosed condition all the organic
compounds, viz. tissue-producing Earth- compounds, water-parts or
Ap-compounds, heat-producing Tejas- compounds, force-producing Vayu-compounds,
and lastly, finer etheric constituents which serve as the vehicle of
consciousness. The essence of chyle from the small intestines is driven by
the bio-motor force, the Prana Vayu, along a Dhamani trunk (cf. the thoracic
duct), first to the heart (which is a great receptacle of chyle), and thence
to the liver (and the spleen); and in the liver the colouring substance in
the bile acts on the essence of chyle, especially on the Tejas- substance
therein, and imparts to it a red pigment, transforming it into blood; but the
grosser part of chyle proceeds along the Dhamanis, being driven by the
bio-motor force, the Vyana Vayu, all over the body. When the blood has been
formed, the essence of chyle in the blood, acted on by Vayu (bio-motor force)
and Mamsagni (the flesh- forming metabolic heat), forms the flesh-tissue, the
Earth-compound of the food-substance especially contributing to this tissue.
Of the flesh-tissue thus formed, the grosser part goes to feed or replenish
the flesh-tissue all over the body. The finer essence of flesh in the blood
in the chyle, acted on again by Vayu (bio-motor current) and the fat-forming
metabolic heat in the menstrum of lymph receives viscosity and whiteness, and
produces the fatty tissue, the Earth- compounds and Ap-compounds of the food
specially contributing to the product. This fat in the chyle (or blood), or
rather the grosser part of it, replenishes the fatty tissue of the body, but
the finer essence of fat in the flesh in the blood in the chyle, acted on by
Vayu (bio- motor current) and the marrow-forming metabolic heat, in the mains-
tream of lymph, becomes hard (crystal-line) and forms bone, the Earth-, Vayu-,
and Tejas-compounds contributing principally to the product. The essence of
the fat fills the hollow channels of the bones, and acted on again by
bio-motor Vayu and metabolic heat, becomes transformed into marrow. The marr-
ow is similarly transformed into the semen, which is conveyed down by means of
a pair of Dhamanis or ducts, lodged in its receptacles and discharged by means
of another pair of ducts. The semen, or rather all the elements in their
finer essence, give off ojas, which returns to the heart, the receptacle of
chyle and blood, and again floods the body and sustains the tissues, thus
completing the wheel or self-returning circle of metabolism cf. Charaka and
Vagbhata). It is to be noted that, throughout, the fluid in the chyle or
blood acts as the menstrum, though occasionally the lymph, which is itself a
derivative from the chyle, is added, as in the case of the fatty tissue and
the bones; and that each preceding element or constituent of the body takes
up the proper organic compounds from the food chyle to form the next element
or tissue. Throughout, also, the chemical changes are due to the metabolic
heat which breaks up the compounds and recombines, but the operations, and
even the vehicles perhaps, of this heat are different. For example, these
heat-corpuscles in the biliary ducts produce the bile, but the bile-secretion
is supposed to contain two distinct substances: (1) a digestive fluid in the
duodenum, which acts on the chyme to produce the chyle; and (2) a colouring
bile-substance in the liver, which adds a red pigment to the chyle and transf-
orms it into blood. Besides, there are three other biles, of which the aqueo-
us humour in the eye is supposed to be one, helping in the formation of visual
images. This is the view of Dhanvantari and his school, but Atreya holds
there is no evidence that the bile really performs the first (digestive)
function, for this can be accounted for by the animal heat arising from the
working of the whole bodily machine. These are three different hypotheses
regarding the course of metabolism and the successive transformations of the
chyle. It may be added as a curiosity that each element of the body under the
metabolic heat is supposed to give off a finer essence, which serves as the
material of the next succeeding element, and a dross, which forms some of the
excreta in the body (including the nails, the hair, etc.), besides retaining
its own substance (the gross or main part), which is driven along by the Vayus
(bio-motor or vital currents), or by the Srotas, to its destination in the
body. Some idea of circulation appears to have been entertained, for the
heart which receives, and then sends down the chyle through the Dhamanis, gets
it back transformed into blood, and the ojas also proceeds from the heart and
returns to it along with the chyle and the blood.
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