Institutions and practitioners

Ayurvedic practitioners have been appointed as Honorary Ayurvedic Physician to the President of India. Every year on the occasion of Dhanvantari jayanti, a prestigious Dhanvantari Award is conferred on a famous personality of Medicine, including Ayurveda. Traditionally Kerala has been the leading state in India that promoted Ayurveda as a medical system, because there existed about 8 families known as 'Ashtavaidyas' who practised ayurveda generation after generation. Even now a few number of these families exist (Pulamanthole Mooss, Thaikkattu mooss,Vayaskara mooss,Olassa mooss,Kuttancheri mooss,Chirattaman mooss,Vellod mooss,& Alathiyur Nambi, Vaidyamadhom,). They taught the ayurveda system of treatment to several people and it spread through them. It led to the establishment of Ayurveda colleges and also inspired research activities in Ayurveda. Now there are many Ayurvedic centers all over Kerala, and, of late, several Ayurveda colleges also have come up. Apart from Ashtavaidyas there had been prominent traditional vaidya families practicing in all the eight branches of Ayurveda with utmost efficacy amongst them the prominent being the descendant of Late Chatharu Nair who was the last word in Ayurveda Pediatrics at the time of his living on whose memmory CNS Ayurveda Chikitsalayam ( Chatharu Nair Smarak) functions in Mezhathur, Kerala.

The National Library of Ayurveda Medicine (NLAM) is attempting a project with the objective of standardizing Ayurveda medicine. The NLAM repository explains in detail the preparation methods of various Ayurveda formulations using standard terms. It gives brief explanation and co-relation of plants, minerals, metals and gemstones (also known as Ratnagarbhas) used as ingredients in Ayurveda medicine. The NLAM digital library / database is being developed per the following guidelines. It has been divided into three active phases of development and is in phase one as of 2008.

In the West, The National Institute Of Ayurvedic Medicine has conducted research in association with the National Cancer Institute.

Practice in the West

Attempts are being made by westerners to export the essence of ayurveda to complement their own medical systems, where steadily biomedicine industry predominates.

As a result of regulations in medical practice in Europe and the America, the most commonly practised Ayurvedic treatments in the west are massage, dietary counseling and herbal advice. The National Ayurvedic Medical Association-USA (NAMA) is one of several groups seeking to set standards for Ayurveda in the West. There are 26 schools in the US and dozens in Europe which are teaching 500-plus hour courses for proficiency as Ayurvedic health practitioners that are then certified but not licensed.