Digital research ecosystem for Ayurveda: A narrative mapping of global, Ayush, and disease-specific databases

Ayurveda is increasingly aligning with modern evidence-based research frameworks to bolster its scientific credibility, clinical significance, and worldwide acceptance. Central to this shift are digital databases, which offer organized access to clinical evidence, data on medicinal plants and ethnobotany, molecular and translational research findings, public health metrics, safety and regulatory details, and classical knowledge archives. Despite the growing availability of these resources, Ayurveda researchers often encounter difficulties in locating suitable databases and comprehending their scope and research utility, as existing literature tends to discuss these platforms in isolation. This narrative review seeks to deliver a structured and comprehensive overview of digital databases that support research in Ayurveda and integrative medicine. Databases were identified through a targeted exploration of reputable international organizations, national Ayush institutions, biomedical and public health platforms, and regulatory sources, complemented by subject-matter expertise. All included databases were manually verified for accessibility, functionality, and institutional authenticity and were qualitatively categorized into seven thematic domains. A total of 159 distinct databases were identified and organized into domains covering clinical and integrative research, medicinal plants and ethnobotany, molecular pharmacology and systems biology, public health and preventive medicine, safety and regulatory science, classical knowledge and gray literature, and disease-specific repositories. The domainwise distribution illustrates a broad and evolving digital research ecosystem supporting Ayurveda across foundational, experimental, clinical, and policy-oriented dimensions. This narrative mapping offers a practical reference framework for researchers, postgraduate scholars, educators, and policymakers and highlights the importance of strategic integration and effective utilization of digital resources to enhance methodological rigor, translational research, and the global positioning of Ayurveda.