Study Claims ‘Siddha’ Drug Combination Can Reduce Anaemia In Girls

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A combination of Siddha drug treatment can help reduce anaemia among adolescent girls, claimed a study on Tuesday. 

The study showed that Siddha drug combination “Annapeticenturam, Bavana katukkay, Matuḷai maṇappaku and Nellikkay lekiyam (ABMN) can improve the level of haemoglobin as well as Packed cell volume (PCV), Mean Corpuscular volume (MCV) and Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH) in the anaemic adolescent girls”.

The ABMN medication “significantly lowered the clinical features of anaemia like fatigue, hair loss, headache, loss of interest and menstrual irregularities and significantly improved the level of haemoglobin and PCV, MCV, and MCH in all anaemic girls,” showed the study published in the reputed Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge (IJTK).

“Siddha medicine plays a notable role in Public Health Initiatives of the Ministry of Ayush. The awareness created among adolescent girls, dietary advice and preventive care provided to them and the treatment through Siddha drugs provided therapeutic benefits to the anaemic patients,” said Dr. R. Meenakumari, Director, National Institute of Siddha, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Ayush.

The study included 2,648 girls, of which 2,300 completed the standard 45-day programme. Reportedly, before the start of the programme, researchers dewormed the participants with Cunṭaivarral curaṇam, and then a 45-day treatment of ABMN was given to all participants under observation.

The team checked for the presence of clinical features like breathlessness, fatigue, giddiness, headache, anorexia, and pallor before and after completion of the programme, along with haemoglobin evaluation and biochemical estimations.

Following the WHO guidelines, the cut-off point for anaemia was set as 11.9 mg/dl, haemoglobin level below 8.0 mg/dl considered as severe, between 8.0 to 10.9 mg/dl as moderate and mild between 11.0 to 11.9 mg/dl.

Further, the team conducted a laboratory investigation for haemoglobin, PCV, MCV, MCH, red blood corpuscles (RBC), platelets, total White blood corpuscles (WBC), neutrophils, lymphocytes and eosinophils in a randomly selected subset of 283 girls.

“Siddha drugs for anaemia can contribute to public health by providing cost-effective and accessible treatment in various settings,” Meenakumari said.