It is a Sanskrit word consisting of “Pancha” (means five) and “Karma” (means remedial measures). So, Panchakarma literally means five remedial measures used in Ayurvedic therapy. Ayurveda basically emphasizes two types of therapy i.e.(i) Eliminatory and (ii) Pacificatory.Panchakarma comes under the Eliminatory therapy.
The term Rasayana is made up off two Sanskrit words – ‘Rasa’ and ‘Ayana.’ The literal meaning of Rasa is the essence of something. Anything ingested into the body in the form of food or medicine is first resynthesized into Rasa Dhatu, the basic plasma tissue. Ayana means channels or pathways in the body throughwhich the Rasa is transported to all the body tissues for biochemical metamorphosis (Rasakriya)