Phytochemical and biological assessments on Lipidium meyenii [maca] and Epimidium sagittatum [horny goat weed]

The effects of Lipidium meyenii [maca, LM] and Epimidium sagittatum [horny goat weed, ES] have been investigated due to their involvement in fertilization. Both of the drugs showed good results before, during and after fertilization in male and female mice. The results revealed that the crude extract of Lipidium meyenii caused a significant decrease in the no. of writhes at 300 and 500mg/kg [p<0.05] as compare to control, Epimidium sagittatum and standard drug. The gross behavioral, open field, exploratory behaviour, forced swimming test for stress, diuretic activity, chronic toxicity with the effect on reproduction of both male and female and change in body weight were also studied. The phytochemical study showed the presence of tannin, alkaloid, carbohydrate, rich protein and absence of sterol in LM, whereas ES shows presence of sterol and less protein. LS improve in muscle activity and exploratory behaviours without any toxic effects on mice and their pups. It does not have diuretic effect for first two hour but act normally after initial phase of drug therapy. Epimidium sagittatum has dual action that is at low dose it has slight stimulation action and at high dose little depressive effect. ES also has some diuretic effect. Overall these results suggest that LM is highly effective remedy for treatment of impotency and reduces stress and depression, because of dual effect ES not only suggested as an anxiolytic medicine but also effective in female hormonal disorder

Comparative clinical evaluation on herbal formulation Pepsil, Safoof-e-Katira and Omeprazole in gastro esophageal reflux disease

This study was conducted to evaluate the role of Unani herbal drugs Pepsil and Safoof-e-katira on the gastro esophageal reflux disease [GERD]. This was multicentre r and omized case control study conducted at Matab Hakeem Muhammad Noor-ud-din, Burewala; Aziz Muhammad din Medical and Surgical Centre, BurewalaandShifa-ul-mulk Memorial Hospital, Hamdard University Karachi. The patients were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. In test group-1 the male female ratio was 40%, 60%; test group-2 was 42%, 58% and in control group was 44%, 56% respectively. The observed symptoms in the study were increased appetite [TG-1-95%, TG-2-95% and CG-89%], difficulty in swallowing [TG-1-93%, TG-2-96% and TC-94%], belching/burping [TG-1-97%, TG-2-97% and CG-95%], vomiting [TG-1-90%, TG-2-96% and CG-89%], heart burn [TG-1-100%, TG-2-100% and CG-98%], palpitation [TG-1-100%, TG-2-100% and CG-97%], epigastric pain [TG-1-97%, TG-2-97% and CG-90%], abdominal cramps [TG-1-97%, TG-2-98% and CG-95%], tenesmus [TG-1-100%, TG-2-100% and CG-97%], flatulence [TG-1-100%, TG-2-75% and CG-95%], wakeup during sleep [TG-1-94%, TG-2-87% and CG-94%]. The p-value of the results of the symptoms was 0.000 except flatulence where the value was 0.001. The statistical results of the study prescribed that all the drugs studied [Pepsil, Safoof-e-katiraandOmeprazole] are highly significant. The herbal coded drug Pepsil showed no side effects and unani herbal drug safoof-e-katira showed minimum result of 75% in the patients while Omeprazole resulted with some side effects. In the result it can be concluded that the herbal coded drug Pepsil is a potent herbal drug for gastro esophageal reflux disease.