Abstract

A REVIEW ON ANTIHYPERTENSIVE EFFECT OF MADBHANJAN CHURNA WITH EQUAL QUANTITY OF TRIKATU CHURNA, A TRADITIONAL FORMULATION OF BENGAL

Dr. Tannawee Singh*, Dr. Trisha Mukhopadhyay, Dr. Suresh Kumar Jaiswara and Dr. Amit Kumar Taraphdar

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Abstract

According to world health organisation (W.H.O) a systolic blood pressure of 140 mm of Hg or more and diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm of Hg or more is considered as hypertension.[2] Hypertension being a chronic non-communicable disease constitutes an important public health challenge because of its prevalence and concomitant increase in risk of cardio-vascular diseases.[4] In Ayurveda root of sarpagandha (Rauwolfia serpentina) is used since ages for treating hypertension. Reserpine is an indole alkaloid extracted from sarpagandha roots. It was extracted with a motive of treating hypertension in a better way. Previously it was used as first line of treatment for hypertension but currently medical fraternity is refraining from using reserpine (indirectly sarpagandha) as the choice of drug for hypertension because researches are showing various adverse effects of reserpine including mental depression, fatigue, sadness and suicidal ideation.[3] In Bengal madbhanjan churna, which is only sarpagandha root powder is used with equal quantity of Trikatu churna for treating hypertension from a long time without any adverse effects. Using trikatu helps in decreasing the blood pressure itself, and overcome the adverse effects of reserpine. Trikatu is composed of equal quantity of sunthi (Zingiber officinale), marich (Piper nigrum Linn.) and pippali (Piper longum Linn.). Piperine is a phytoconstituent found in both marich and pippali, which has anti-depressant property as well as anti-hypertensive property.[5,7] Sunthi has also anti-hypertensive[12] and anti-depressant property.[6] When we use sarpagandha (indirectly reserpine) with trikatu even for a long time, it shows no adverse effect of reserpine, besides it has multiple benefits.

Keywords: Sarpagandha, Trikatu, Reserpine, Hypertension.