Panchakarma is a form of treatment in Ayurveda where treatment is done by using various procedures like massage, steam, medicated enemas etc. This treatment constitutes of five basic forms of treatment each of which is known as a karma. These five basic procedures are

Ayurveda states that physical and mental diseases occur due to the vitation of somatic doshas vata, pitta and kapha and due to mental doshas rajas and tamas. Panchakarma is a process in which these accumulated substances are removed from the body by direct intervention.

Due to improper food habits like excessive eating, eating too many cold foods, hard to digest foods, remaining in a cold environment for a long time without proper precaution etc leads to accumulation of excessive phlegm in the body. This is called as kapha in Ayurveda. The process by which this excessive phlegm is removed is called as vaman. The excessive eating of sour or bitter foods, too much hot foods, traveling in the sun or remaining in the sun for a longer period of time results in pitta accumulation. The excessive pitta is removed by the process virechan.
The vata gets accumulated in the body due to excessive traveling, excessive physical work, and eating dry foods. The excessive vata is removed by the process basti from the body. When any of the three doshas get accumulated in the head region it is removed by nasal cavity by the process nasya. The raktamokshan process is used to remove the excess of any of the doshas from the blood.

Thus, panchakarma’s purificatory therapies balance out the three doshas, acting both as a curative and a preventive measure.