Abstract

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIGESTIVE STIMULANT ACTION OF MARICHA CHOORNA AND TRIKATU CHOORNA IN EXPERIMENTAL RATS

Sameeksha Rahate*, Mangala Jadhav and Anjali menon

Abstract

In Ayurveda, there are so many formulations which play important role in gastrointestinal problems. Among them Trikatu choorna (combination of dried fruits of Piper longum, Piper nigrum and rhizomes of Zingiber officinale) is most commonly prescribed by ayurvedic practitioners for digestive impairment. Maricha is one of the three contents of Trikatu choorna. As Trikatu choorna and Maricha choorna both have Deepana (digestive stimulant) activity, this study was proposed to assess the digestive stimulant activity of Maricha choorna in comparison with Trikatu choorna. CMC (carboxy methyl cellulose) was used as a vehicle. The experiment was done on female Sprague Dawley Rats of body weight ranging 150-220 gms. Both the test drugs were administered to the animals of respected groups at 300mg/kg weight of rats b.d. for 7 days. On 8th day, blood samples and small intestinal mucosal scrapings of rats were taken for enzyme estimation with the help of standard enzyme estimation kits. The digestive enzymes namely alkaline phosphatase, lipase, amylase and protein content were estimated. The results show that both the choornas have definitive stimulatory action on digestive enzymes and Maricha choorna is having more lipolytic activity than Trikatu. It is more useful in fat digestion than Trikatu.

Keywords: Choorna, Digestive stimulant, Experimental rats, Maricha, Trikatu.