Plants used for treatment of diarrhea: an Ayurvedic prospective

Relevance: In developing countries, diarrhoea becomes a major health problem leading to morbidity and mortality in rural communities. In the present article we have tried to enumerate simple and single herbal remedies helpful in curing diarrhea.Materials and methods: literature survey was conducted with help of several important Ayurvedic text to collect information on plants used for treating diarrhoea.Results and conclusions: 140 single herbal preparations were reported in the present article. The study has supplied information on many medicinal plants and their method of uses. Such simple preparations may helps to the traditional healers in management of diarrhoea in initial stage. Moreover, these user friendly methodologies may contribute in initiation of advance investigation for discovery of new compounds and formulation from these potential plants

Time Tested Remedies for Wound Care from Ayurveda Sciences

Management of wound is a challenge before clinician as well as pharmaceutical industries. It accounts a huge amount of economic loss every year. A good therapeutic agent for wound care should preferably give better result on one or more phases of healing devoid of harmful effects. A good step in this regard is use of traditional medicinal remedies and plants. WHO also support, promote and encourage use of various traditional medicines in primary health care due to easy accessibility, cost efficiency, safety and trust of public in them. Since many centuries Ayurvedic medicines have been used by people due to its ability to enhance immunity and prevent diseases. A number of plant, animal and mineral product are mentioned in Ayurvedic classics for treatment of different stages of wound. At the moment, scientific research on medicinal plants is being carried out most intensely in research institutes, universities and pharmaceutical laboratories as well as in the clinics of many developed countries. In the present article an attempt was made to collect such useful remedies from Ayurvedic classics for wound care which are effective, easily available, easy to prepare and use them without any side effects.Â

Nutritional status and associated comorbidities among the elderly in Doiwala block, Dehradun

Background: Ageing is an irreversible biological process which starts from conception and ends after death. Elderly population is at risk of under nutrition due to physical, cognitive as well as functional decline. Increasing ill health and increasing disability are linked with nutritional risk indicators. Nutritional deficiencies in geriatric age group are common and often subclinical thus escaping the desired interventions. Hence, this study was undertaken to collect information on nutritional status and associated comorbidities of this population. Aims & Objectives: 1.To assess the nutritional status and associated morbidities among the elderly. 2. To suggest appropriate measures to improve their health. Material methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the elderly people in the field practice area of Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC), HIMS, Dehradun for a period of 3 months. A total of 192 individuals of ≥60 years were interviewed. Pre-structured Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire was used. Data are presented as mean values and standard deviations and significance level chosen at p < 0.05. Result: Out of total 192 elderly (≥60 years) interviewed, 48.4% were males and 51.6% were females. The mean weight (Kg) was 54.65 ± 13.44 (25-94) and mean BMI (Kg/m2) was 22.30 ± 5.08 (12.57-44.64).According to MNA there were 20.83 % malnourished and 43.7 % were at risk of malnutrition and this was  positively associated with age (p – 0.004) and female gender (p – 0.0001). According to MNA-SF (MNA short form), 17.2 % were malnourished while 45.3% were at risk of malnutrition and followed the same pattern of age and sex as in MNA. BMI analysis showed that 21.8% were malnourished, 15.4% were overweight and 7.4% were obese. Comorbidities were found to be more in malnourished group as compared to the well-nourished. Conclusion: Due to the high prevalence of elderly who were malnourished or at risk of malnutrition, a more detailed evaluation, regular follow up & dietary intervention to reverse the situation is required