Preclinical safety and efficacy studies of a Siddha herbomineral preparation Narpavala chunnam for Swasakasam Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

The Narpavalam can be identified through Stereo microscope. The Narpavala chunnam possess the specified characters of chunnam as mentioned in the literature. The physicochemical analysis of the prepared drug revealed it s quality of standard. The CHN analysis revealed that NPC has major amount of carbon and minimal amount of nitrogen which was confirmed by TGA. The hydrogen present in the Narpavalam was absent in the final product. NPC has important elements like Ca, Mg, Na, K, Fe, P, Cu, Mn, Sr and Zn. The toxic elements like mercury, arsenic, cadmium were found below detectable limit. The Lead present in NPC was within the WHO permissible limit. The XRD patterns of the samples match with that of calcite and indicate the presence of rhombohedral crystal structure. This matches with the results of elemental analysis which co-presence of Mg with Ca was evident and suggested that NPC was mainly magnesium substituted calcite. The FTIR analysis revealed that both NPC I and NPC II samples exhibit similar spectral features which match with that of calcite. NPC showed a particle size varied from 500 nm to 800 nm in DLS analysis. The average particle size of NPC II was 616 nm. The SEM analysis of the drug revealed that the particles of the drug possess non uniform, spherical morphology. The drug was found to be safe up to 10 times the therapeutic dose in experimental animals tested. The long term toxicity study did not show any toxic effects in the animals. NPC increases the SOD level significantly and decrease the MDA level indicated its antioxidant potential. NPC has also demonstrated anti inflammatory activity and immuno modulating activity which could also contribute for its antiasthmatic effect. The safety and efficacy studies with Narpavala chunnam (NPC) indicate that the drug was found to be safe and possess efficacy against Swasakasam (Bronchial asthma). Therefore this formulation will be a worthy medicine for a randomized clinical study in humans. newline