Ayurvedic industry

The Ayurvedic industry in India is around 100 years old. The earliest players were Dabur in the East, Dodh Pappaswer in the West, Kottakkal in the South, and Vaidya Nath in the North. All these groups were founded between 1890 and 1910. Before that the Ayurvedic industry was confined to the physicians and was more a service than a profession. The knowledge was considered sacred and was believed to have spiritual origins. In the process of westernisation and consequent commercialisation of healing, Ayurveda also had to become a part of this process.
Ayurvedic medicines are produced by several thousand companies in India, but most of them are quite small, including numerous neighborhood pharmacies that compound ingredients to make their own remedies. It is estimated that the total value of products from the entire Ayurvedic production in India is on the order of one billion dollars (U.S.). The industry has been dominated by less than a dozen major companies for decades, joined recently by a few others that have followed their lead, so that there are today 30 companies doing a million dollars or more per year in business to meet the growing demand for Ayurvedic medicine. The products of these companies are included within the broad category of "fast moving consumer goods" (FMCG; which mainly involves foods, beverages, toiletries, cigarettes, etc.). Most of the larger Ayurvedic medicine suppliers provide materials other than Ayurvedic internal medicines, particularly in the areas of foods and toiletries (soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc.), where there may be some overlap with Ayurveda, such as having traditional herbal ingredients in the composition of toiletries.