As has been the practice over the years, Ayurveda once again proves its might in achieving to obtain a cure for a disease that has been troubling the global population for years, Dengue. In a breakthrough move that can help in the fight against dengue, a herbal medicine is claimed to have been developed by Indian scientists. This is a very important move in the fight against this disease, as India reports a very substantial number of deaths due to dengue and lack of an available medicine to treat it fully.
Experts are now gearing up for the next step, which is to hold clinical trials and toxicity studies before seeking permission from the Ministry of Ayush and the Drug Controller of India (DCI) for commercial production. This project, to find a cure for this disease, which has been known to be fatal at times, was undertaken jointly by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Ranbaxy Research Laboratory (now owned by Sun Pharma), and employed Ayurveda in devising the drug. Knowledge of Ayurveda was used to develop a systematic bioassay-guided screening approach to explore indigenous herbal bio-resources to identify plants with pan-DENV (dengue virus) inhibitory activity. The extract is purely herbal and contains no chemicals.
Preliminary evaluation of the clinical relevance of Cipa extract showed it had no adverse impact on platelet count and RBC viability. It also showed no evidence of toxicity in Wistar rats, when administered doses as high as 2g/Kg body weight for up to a week. In tropical countries such as India where periodic dengue outbreaks can be correlated to the high prevalence of the mosquito vector, circulation of all four dengue viruses (DENVs) and the high population density, a drug for dengue is being increasingly recognized as a necessity and it is heart warming to see once again Ayurveda coming to the rescue. Leading Ayurveda hospitals are gearing up for more on this.
