Abstract

TOXICOLOGICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL PROFILING OF ATHIMATHURA CHOORANAM - A SIDDHA FORMULATION INDICATED FOR RESPIRATORY AILMENTS AMONG CHILDREN

K. Preetha*, Indu Purushothaman and S. T. Immanuel Moses Keerthy

Abstract

Respiratory tract infections seem to be the most common chronic disease in developing countries with bothersome symptoms affecting the quality of life in children causing emergency hospital visits, missed school days and mortality. Athimathura Chooranam is a Siddha classical Polyherbal formulation indicated in Siddha literature for Kanam (Respiratory ailments in Children). This study was aimed to evaluate the Anti-inflammatory, Antipyretic and Antihistaminic activity of the powdered extract of Athimathura chooranam supported by in vivo studies. The Acute oral toxicity and repeated oral toxicity study was performed for the extract of Athimathura chooranam in Wistar albino rats to find the appropriate dosage to be administered. Anti-inflammatory activity of the extract was further assessed using Carrageenan induced hind paw edema and Cotton pellet granuloma and later Antipyretic and Antihistaminic activity was also studied using rat and Guinea pigs respectively. It was observed that the extract was found to be nontoxic at dosage of 2000mg/kg/po in rat and so it can be classified under category-5 of globally harmonized system of classification and labeling of chemicals. It poses antiinflammatory activity at 450 mg/kg/po in both carrageenan induced hind paw edema and Cotton pellet granuloma. The extract had effective antipyretic activity even after 240 min of observation. Athimathura chooranam exhibited anti-histaminic activity at a concentration of 32mg/ml and all the results were supported by statistical significance. The results reveal that Athimathura chooranam had good Anti-inflammatory, Antipyretic and Antihistaminic activity which was supported by in vivo preclinical studies.

Keywords: Athimathura chooranam, Kanam, Anti-inflammatory activity, Antipyretic activity, Antihistaminic activity.