Our Research in Herbal Medicine

India has tremendous herbal wealth and traditional knowledge associated with it. Known by various names like home remedies, tribal medicine, traditional medicine and Ayurveda, we have many plant based products meant for health needs. Calling this as alternate medicine is incorrect, unjustified and insulting since the connotation of ‘alternative’ is that it is secondary to something else. Rightfully this must get the first place because it has existed and was practiced prior to the entry of other pathies on medical scene. It was the under use and disuse of our own repertoire which enabled the other pathies to grow aggressively over it.

For any country the indigenous medicine has national pride because it has developed locally over the centuries and is time tested. It should be practiced with honour, refined with interest and spread with intention. China, Japan, Korea and many other countries proudly practice their own medicine. Even the Tibetans in India practice Tibetan medicine. Geographically Unan is not existing but India has medical colleges and hospitals, which teach and practice Unani medicine.

The rise of modern medicine has occurred in last century. Prior to it the human civilization has not only survived but also prospered and blossomed to present state. The human development did occur without industrial products and was solely dependant on nature. Our ancestors did not require the chemicals to keep them disease free.

While some allopathic medicines do have remarkable efficacy and speedy action like analgesics, antipyretics and antimicrobials, most of the medicines only provide symptomatic relief and do not cure the diseases like hypertension, diabetes and ischemic heart diseases. It is the current generation, which seems to have forgotten the use of indigenous herbal medicine and is over dependant on imported pathies.

There are many modern medicines, which are derived from the herbal sources. It is most unfortunate that we have to be informed about the utility of haldi through advertisements of turmeric creams, face packs are sold more than multani mitti, irrational cough mixtures are consumed but not home made anticough kadha, liquorice containing lozenges are sucked but not the jyestha madh, menthol is preferred over pudina, fancy garlic pearls are preferred over raw lahsun without realizing that only names are firangi but the contents are desi!

Getting started in herbals
Our trainers in traditional medicine told us about their research on Tinospora Cordifolia. We decided to get started with it. We went through the published papers on this, understood that it was an immunostimulant and then looked at extrapolating this. We prepared a list of immune compromised conditions and then searched bibliography databases to narrow down on the diseases where efficacy of Tinospora was not tested. Then we chose the condition where the trial will be feasible in our set up. While the published papers have been quoted, details of others which are yet to be published have been given in parenthesis.

This led to the conceptualisation of our first project to find the efficacy of Tinospora Cordifolia extract (TCE) in Allergic rhinitis patients 1, the critical review of which is also positive 2. Having tested the success with first project, we extended the TCE research in thermal burns (Gunjan Gangrade, ICMR UG Research Studentship Project 2003), then in HIV positive patients (Dr Sonali Pimpalkhute, Sir Madhavrao Chitnavis Clinical Research Fellowship for 2003-04, with funding), then in Hensen’s disease (Dr Kavita Jaiswal).

We looked at the diseases which were commonly prevalent in India, where modern medicine did not offer complete cure, there was bibliographical evidence for use of indigenous herbs, the herb was still available, no paper was published in any scientific journal on the study we planned and the study was feasible within our available resources. During our readings we realised that the Sanskrit and vernacular names of Indian herbs had great significance. That is how we came to Gajabhaksha.

Boswellia Serrata
It made interesting reading to know that Elephant torso to leg ratio was more than humans, they were on their legs for longer time than us, survived longer and yet did not suffer from arthritis of knee. They consumed the bark of the tree, which was therefore called Gajabhaksha 3. This led to evaluating its efficacy in osteoarthritis of knee (Dr Nitin Kimmatkar, international publication 4, critical review in another international journal 5 and more than 100 citations on various search engines), then we did our first kinetic study (Dr Sunita Sharma, Dr U. K. Sheth award for best presentation in Clinical Pharmacology in national conference, international publication 6) and have just completed its comparative trial with an established non-steroidal anti inflammatory drug (Dr Smita Sontakke).

Cissus Quadrangularis
With vernacular names Hadjod, Asthishrankhala and alike, it attracted our attention since no fracture healing medicine is known in modern medicine. We found that bonesetters used the poultice of this in treatment of fractures. This led to evaluation of its efficacy in fractures of long bones, where we found it to be effective 7. Then we hypothesised that it may be effective in low bone mineral density 8,9 where we did find it effective (Dr Sarang Dhatrak, MD dissertation) and later extended the research to peri-menopausal women (Dr Vikrant Deshmukh). Our first in-vitro research project showed that it also had antibacterial properties 10(Dr Sushil Makhija).

Bacopa Monnieri
The Indian name Brahmi is well known and CDRI Lucknow has done extensive research on it. Many companies manufacture products for memory improvement containing Brahmi. We thought of evaluating its efficacy on medical students (Navneet Kumar, ICMR UG Research Studentship Project 2004). Having found it effective, we have extrapolated it to senile dementia (Dr Anand Saoji) and have plans to test it in Alzheimer’s patients.

Punica Granatum
We read that Pomegranate is one of the best anti-oxidants, which led to planning of its biochemical and kinetic study (Bharati Manglani, PhD thesis). We are also screening its efficacy in Coronary Artery Disease patients (Navneet Kumar, ICMR UG Research Studentship Project 2005) and also looking at its in-vitro action.

Asparagus Recemosus
A practicing Gynaecologist gave a herbal combination product to my wife for her menopausal syndrome. On enquiry she confirmed its efficacy and also informed that her patients were satisfied with the formulation in alleviating menopause associated problems. While working on one such product we realised that its major constituent was Shatavari 11. Hence we planned the study to evaluate the efficacy of extract of Asparagus Recemosus in menopausal syndrome (Dr Leela Abhichandani, PhD thesis).

Other Projects on Herbals
Our research group members have also worked on many other herbal extracts like Ginger 12 (Dr Smita Borkar, MD dissertation), Guggul, Karela and Neem 13 (Dr Atul Raut, MD dissertation), Banana leaf (Dr Varsha Sagdeo) and an antidiabetic herbal combination 14.

While names of only principal investigators have been mentioned, there are many co-investigators in each project and our “Team Indigenous” is able to forge ahead because of their continued interest, dedication and enthusiasm. More than 40 researchers from various specialities have been associated with various projects. Herbal research is teamwork and needs great inputs. Salutations to those who have shown the power to sustain and have been continuing in herbal research. The coming years will see dozens of papers on herbal research from our group in various medical journals.

References

1. Badar VA, Thawani VR, Wakode PT, Shrivastava MP, Gharpure KL, Hingorani LL, Khiyani RM. Efficacy of Tinospora cordifolia in allergic rhinitis. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Jan 2005, 96 (3): 445-449.

2. Bader VA, Thawani VR, Wakode PT, Shrivastava MP, Gharpure KJ, Hingorani LL, Khiyani RM. Jury still out on the usefulness of a traditional herbal medicine for allergic rhinitis. Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies. Appearing in Sept 2005.

3. Sontakke SD, Thawani VR, Gharpure KJ, Patel SB. Herbals in osteoarthritis. Milestone, Jan 2004, 3 (1): 25-28.

4. Kimmatkar N, Thawani VR, Hingorani LL, Khiyani RM. Efficacy and tolerability of Boswellia serrata extract in treatment of osteoarthritis of knee - a randomized double blind placebo controlled trial. Phytomedicine, Feb 2003, 10: 3-7.

5. Thawani VR. Positive study of Boswellia serrata for knee osteoarthritis suffers from methodological flaws. Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Sept 2003; 8 (3): 316-317.

6. Sharma S, Thawani VR, Hingorani LL, Shrivastava MP, Bhate V, Khiyani RM. Pharmacokinetic study of 11-keto b Boswellic acid. Phytomedicine, March 2004,11: 255-260.

7. Thawani VR, Kimmatkar N, Hingorani LL, Khiyani RM. Effect of herbal combination containing cissus quadrangularis in fracture healing. The Antiseptic, Sep 2002, 99(9): 345-347.

8. Gharpure KJ, Thawani VR, Dhatrak SD, Patel SB. Cissus Quadrangularis-a promising herb in fracture healing and osteoporosis. The Antiseptic, June 2004, 101 (6): 225-226.

9. Thawani VR, Dhatrak S, Gharpure KJ, Thakre S, Patel SB. Traditional medicine in osteoporosis. Orthopedics Today, Apr-Jun 2004, 6 (2): 117-120.

10. Makhija SF, Chande C, Powar R, Thawani VR. Antimicrobial activity of cissus quadrangularis linn in-vitro. Appearing in The Antiseptic. Aug 2005.