A review on herbal antiasthmatics

In traditional systems of medicine, many plants have been documented to be useful for the treatment of various respiratory disorders including asthma. In the last two decades the use of medicinal plants and natural products has been increased dramatically all over the world. Current synthetic drugs used in pharmacotherapy of asthma are unable to act at all the stages and targets of asthma. However some herbal alternatives employed in asthma are proven to provide symptomatic relief and assist in the inhibition of disease progression also. The herbs have shown interesting results in various target specific biological activities such as bronchodilation, mast cell stabilization, anti-anaphylactic, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, anti-allergic, immunomodulatory and inhibition of mediators such as leukotrienes, lipoxygenase, cyclooxygenase, platelet activating, phosphodiesterase and cytokine, in the treatment of asthma. This paper is an attempt to classify these pharmacological and clinical findings based on their possible mechanism of action reported. It also signifies the need for development of polyherbal formulations containing various herbs acting at particular sites of the pathophysiological cascade of asthma for prophylaxis as well as for the treatment of asthma

Evaluation of effects of Bauhinia variegata stem bark extracts against milk-induced eosinophilia in mice

Bauhinia variegata Linn (family: Caesalpiniaceae), popularly known as Rakta Kanchnar, is a medium-sized tree found throughout India. The stem bark of B. variegata (BV) is used traditionally in the treatment of asthma, jaundice, tuberculosis, leprosy, and skin diseases. In the present study, we have investigated the role of aqueous (BVA) and ethanol (BVE) extracts of the plant against milk-induced leukocytosis and eosinophilia in albino mice. The results of the study revealed that pretreatment with both the extracts caused significant reduction in the total leukocyte and eosinophil counts in animals in dose-dependent manner. From these results, it can be concluded that the plant BV is having antieosinophilic activity

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel thiosemicarbazide analogues as potent anticonvulsant agents

Novel thiosemicarbazide derivatives were synthesised and evaluated for their anticonvulsant activity and neurotoxicity. Anticonvulsant activity was done for grand mal and petit mal types of epilepsies by maximal electroshock (MES) and pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) induced convulsions methods respectively. Rotarod test was done to determine neurotoxicity. Amongst synthesised compounds, N-(4-bromophenyl) 2-[(2-phenylhydrazinyl) carbonothioyl] hydrazinecarbothioamide (5e) is a broad-spectrum anticonvulsant agent since it was active in both (MES) and (PTZ) induced seizure models with no neurotoxicity and N, N-(bis(chlorophenyl) hydrazine-1,2-dicarbothoamide (5g) acts as a selective agent for grand mal epilepsy. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved