Purpose: To determine the knowledge and attitude of patients on the usage of herbal medicines in Udupi Region of Karnataka State, India. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study, carried out over a period of six months, and involving a structured and validated questionnaire. It was conducted among patients who visited hospitals in and around the Udupi region of Karnataka, India. Results: About 37 % of the respondents of the study used a combination of allopathy and herbal medicines. The results further showed that 29.8 % of respondents used allopathy, while 24.5 % were on herbal medicines. Of the total herbal medicine users, 34.07 % of the respondents stated that the reason for using herbal medicines was their perception that herbal medicines had more efficacy and comparatively lower side effects. A majority of the respondents, i.e., 64.6 %, lacked knowledge on dose, duration of therapy, side effects and interactions of the drugs. Out of 226 respondents who used herbal medicine, only 65 (28.76 %) could identify adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Among these 65 patients who could identify ADRs, only 16 (24.62 %) informed the physician about it, while the remaining 49 (75.38 %) patients did not inform the physician about it. Conclusion: The results indicate a need to conduct educational and awareness programs by AYUSH, The Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy on herbal medicines and adverse drug reactions in order to minimize untoward effects caused by herbal medicines.
Background
Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi or Amrita) is an important drug of Ayurvedic System of Medicine and found mention in various classical texts for the treatment of diseases such as jaundice, fever, diabetes, cancer and skin disease etc. In view of its traditional claims, antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities were evaluated in the present study.MethodsEthanol extract (TCE) and subsequent petroleum ether (TCP), dichloromethane (TCD), n-Butanol (TCB) and aqueous (TCA) fractions of were prepared from stems of T cordifolia. Total phenolic, flavonoid content and anti-oxidant activity was assessed by different methods. Anti-proliferative activity was assessed in cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cell lines by MTT and SRB assay.ResultsEthanol extract and n-butanol fractions shown to be superior in their scavenging activity in all the tested methods. n-butanol fractions shown antioxidant activity with an IC50 of 14.81 ± 0.53, 29.48 ± 2.23, 58.20 ± 0.70 and 21.17 ± 1.19 μg/mL by DPPH, ABTS, Nitric oxide and iron chelating activities respectively. Anti-proliferative activity results demonstrates that the TCD and ethanol extract of T cordifolia exhibits potent cytotoxic effect against HeLa with an IC50 of 54.23 ± 0.94 μg/mL and 101.26 ± 1.42 μg/mL respectively by MTT assay; and with an IC50 of 48.91 ± 0.33 μg/mL and 87.93 ± 0.85 μg/mL respectively by SRB assay.ConclusionThe outcomes of the present study support the fact that T Cordifolia is a promising source of antioxidant agent and propose its further investigation. Moreover, dichloromethane fraction of T cordifolia shown to be the most potent anti-proliferative fraction and further mechanistic and phytochemical investigations are under way to identify the active principles.
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