Types of snakesin Siddha Medicine – a literature review

The four common venomous land snakes which are found in India region include the Common cobra (Najanaja), the Common krait (Bangaruscaeruleus), the Russell‘s viper (Viperarusselli) and the Saw scaled viper (Echiscarinatus) (Virmani SK and Dutt OP. A., 1987, Kulkarni ML and Anees S., 1994). Although venomous snake bite is a life threatening emergency, it is rarely considered as a priority for health research in developing countries like India. In siddhar’s view they listed 64 snakes in texts therefore I need to analysis the types of snakes with modern and ancient texts by literature review research. Enumerate the types of snakes which are list in ancient Siddha medical system and available modern text books and e-books is aim of this research. And primary objective - to list-out the types of snakes available or not in present according to ancient siddha texts. Secondary objective - to compare the name of snakes are same or change between modern and ancient siddha texts. Siddha Toxicology, Visha Vaida Aaruda Noolgal, Visha Vaidya Chinthamani were selected for siddha literatures and The essential of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Principles of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, and Guidelines for the management of snake bites, were selected as modern literature about types of snake. Finally concluded as; siddha classical text said 64 types snakes were available in modern text and distributed in South Asian countries such as; Sri Lanka, Bangaladesh etc.