Ethnobotanical Leaflets 13: 73-76. 2009.

 

 

Polyherbal Formulation used in the Treatment of Jaundice

 

1Kapadia, R., 2Dwivedi, S., 3Dwivedi, A., 3Pandey, S. and 4Barpete, P.K.

 

1People’s Institute of Pharmacy and Research Center, Bhopal, M.P.-India, Mob. No. 09893401806, 09893478497

2Chordia Institute of Pharmacy, Indore, M.P.-India

3NRI Groups of Institutions, institute of Pharmacy, Bhopal, M.P.-India

4Malhotra College of Pharmacy, Bhopal, M.P.-India

 

Issued 04 January 2009

 

ABSTRACT

Plants have traditionally served as man's most important weapon against pathogens. Herbal medicines are widely used by all sections of the community, either as folk remedies or as medicaments in the indigenous as well as modern system of medicine. The present work was performed to enumerate the medicinal herbs that tribes and rural people uses for the treatment of jaundice. Data were collected by interviewing local traditional therapists and tribes of the region. Details of 10 herbs and 03 formulations were gathered along with their doses, duration and formulations during the course of present investigation in the study area. Our study revealed that all above herbs and their formulations have been used since quite a long time by the tribes and rural people and no side/ adverse effects were reported.

 

Keywords: Polyherbal formulation, jaundice, tribal and rural people.

 

INTRODUCTION

India is repository of herbal medicines and there are evidences that herbs have been used in the treatment of various diseases for revitalizing body system in almost all ancient civilization1. Medicinal plants are our local heritage with global importance. Herbal preparations viz., herbal tablets, herbal tonics, herbal shampoo, herbal cosmetics, herbal paste, herbal sindoor and herbal contraceptives have become popular among consumers2. India is sitting on a gold mine of well-recorded and traditionally well-practiced knowledge of herbal medicine. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to utilizing ecofriendly and biofriendly plant-based products for the prevention and cure of different human diseases3 . The use of herbal medicine in the treatment of liver disorder has been in tradition from long back. The first literature to have reported on it was Charaka Samhita in 600 BC. The importance of herbal medicine in the treatment of liver disorder can be traced back to 2100 BC. The aim of present work was to find out the herbs frequently used by the tribes and rural people of the study area in the treatment of jaundice. Special emphasizes were made to record the polyherbal formulation which they use in the treatment.

 

OBJECTIVE OF THE WORK

To collect and identify the herbs as well as polyherbal formulations used in treatment of jaundice from Madhya Pradesh region of India.

To explore the method of preparation of various polyherbal formulations with dose and duration.

 

STUDY AREA

The present investigation has been carried out in 32 remote places of Madhya Pradesh scattered over three regions (Malwa region, Nimar region and Vindhya region). For a properly and orderly study, the study sites were selected considering the population and density of flora (Table 1). Knowledge about the herbs and formulations used in the treatment of jaundice was obtained from tribal and rural people.

 

Table 1.  Study sites.

S/No.

Study Area

Name of Study Area

No. of study sites selected

1.

Vindhya region

Rewa, Sidhi, Satna, Shahdol, Umaria, Anoopur, Panna

12

2.

Malwa region

Indore, Dewas, Ujjain, Dhar, Ratlam, Maundsaur

10

3.

Nimar region

Neemach, Dhamnod, Jhabua, Khargone, Khandawa

10

 


METHODOLOGY

Information’s about the plants and their herbal formulations used by tribal and rural people, along with the plant specimens were collected by the investigators from different study sites of Madhya Pradesh during Feb-2008 to Aug-2008.

Field and survey work was made after carefully planning field trips. During the fields trips interview were conducted by the author with the informants.4,5,6

The plants were identified by Dr. S. N. Dwivedi, Principal Investigator, UGC Research Project on Medicinal Plants, Dept. of Botany, Janta PG College, APS University, Rewa (M.P.) and are deposited in Pharmacognosy laboratory of our institute.

Confirmation of the plant specimens were made with the help of floristic literature. 7,8

 

OBSERVATIONS

Direct discussion between the authors and different informants were made and overall five polyherbal formulations were revealed and are mentioned in Table  2 below:

 

Table 2. Polyherbal formulations.

S/No.

Polyherbal formulations

Dose and duration

1.

Azadirachta indica Juss( Neem): 25 gm powdered leaves  + Boerhaavia diffusa Linn. (Punarnaba): 100 gm fruit pulp infusion + Allium cepa Linn. (Pyaj): 50 g bulb cooked with vinegar +Phyllanthus niruri Linn. (Bhuamla): decoction of 100 g fruits.

 

Mix all in equal proportion, 25 gm of the mixture, to be  taken daily for a week

2.

Justicia adhotoda Linn. (Adusa): 100 g powder of its leaves mixed with leaf powder of Plumbago zeylanica + Cassia fistula Linn. (Amaltas) decoction of 25 g of fruit pulp+ Emblica Officinalis Gaertn. (Amala) 50 g powdered drug

 

Mix all in specified quantity, 50 gm given along with milk to cure the disease for two weeks, two times daily.

3.

Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. ( Mudi): 50 g powdered drug given + Tinospora cordif olia Willd. (Giloya) 50 g powdered drug whole plant + Asteracantha longifolia Nees. (Gokhulakanta) decoction of 60 g root is boiled in half liter of water.

 

Mix all the herbs, 25 gm given three times daily with water up to three weeks.

 

 

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

It has been realized that medicinal herbs are going to play a very important role in future health care system. Most of modern researches on herbal medicine have hinged around traditional folklore medicine. The synthetic drug attacks the targets blindly thus affecting the several related metabolic systems, while herbal medicines probably work selectively and gently without disturbing the other system. Further these drugs prepared with the traditional methods hence, conserve all the natural substances, without losing any essential components and maintains the activity and purity of active phyto principles in them. Herbal medicines are cheaper, effective; easily available also their methods of preparations are simple and easier. There is no risk report of any side effects and above all herbs fulfill the social and cultural needs of peoples. During the course of present investigation 10 herbs and their three formulations has been revealed from the different study sites of Madhya Pradesh used in the treatment of jaundice.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are thankful to the tribal and rural people for their valuable efforts and suggestions during the course of present investigation. Thanks to Dr. S. N. Dwivedi, HOD Deptt. Of Botany, Janata PG College, Rewa, M.P. for identification of plants and Mr. Raghvendra Dubey, Chordia Institute of Pharmacy for their valuable encouragements and guidance.

REFERENCES

Bakhru H.K., Herbs that heals: Oriental publishers, New Delhi, 1999, 5-8.

 

Dwivedi S. N.., Herbal remedies among the tribal of Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh, Jour. Econ. Taxon. Bot, 20(3), 2004, 675-687.

 

Dubey NK, Kumar R, Tripathi P, Global promotion of herbal medicine, India's opportunity, Cur. Sci, 86(1), 2004, 37-41

 

Dwivedi S. N., Ethnobotanical studies and conservation strategies on wild and natural resources of Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh, Jour. Econ. Bot, 2003, 27(1), 233-244.

 

Varghese E, Applied Ethnobotany, A case study among the Khairas of Central India, Deep Publication, New Delhi, 1996.

 

Dwivedi S., Dwivedi A. and Dwivedi S.N., Folk Lore Uses of Some Plants by the Tribes of Madhya Pradesh with Special Reference to Their Conservation, Ethnobotanical Leaflets, 2008 12: 763-71.

 

Kurion J. C., Planta that heals, 5th ed. Pune, Oriental Watchman publishing house, 2003.

 

Khare C.P., Encyclopedia of Indian Medicinal Plants, Springes-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, New York, 2004.