ABSTRACT
Background: Dengue is an infectious disease associated with high mortality and morbidity. Being a viral disease, there is no specific drug available for treatment. There are some reports that Carica papaya leaf extract may improve the clinical condition of dengue patients. However, to support this, at present, there is no systematically searched and synthesized evidence available. Hence this study was undertaken to compare the efficacy of commercial preparation of Carica papaya leaves with freshly prepared Carica papaya leaf extracted.Methods: 48 albino rats were randomly divided into eight groups of six each. Thrombocytopenia was induced by giving hydroxyurea (15mg/kg) orally. Group I and II served as saline and toxic control group respectively. Other six groups were given two different doses of either commercial extract or fresh extract orally for five days. 1ml of blood was withdrawn at baseline,3rd and 6th day of the study. Platelet, WBC, RBC count, clotting and bleeding time were determined.Results: Mean platelet count increased significantly on day 6 in both low dose (2.06 to 4.93lakh/mm3) and human equivalent dose (2.73 to 7.66lakh/mm3) of commercial extract groups compared to the toxic control group (p<0.05). Similarly, the mean platelet count increased significantly for human equivalent dose in fresh leaf extract group (3.17 to 4.69lakh/mm3) but the increase in low dose fresh extract (3.28 to 3.76lakh/mm3) was not significant. There was no significant rise in mean platelets count, mean RBC count, WBC count, decrease in mean bleeding and clotting time between commercial extract and fresh leaf extract group for both low dose and human equivalent dose.Conclusions: Efficacy of fresh leaf extract of Carica papaya was not inferior to commercial available preparation. Fresh Carica papaya leaf extract no doubt offers a potential therapeutic efficacy which is cost effective, more affordable and accessible treatment in patients with thrombocytopenia.