ABSTRACT:
Hepatic problems especially gall stones have affected man from time immemorial. During the time when surgery was not invented, this was mainly treated by herbal decoctions and diet control. There has been a mention of medicinal herbs effective in treatment of gallstones in the ancient medical records of all cultures like Indian (Ayurvedic), Chinese (TCM), Greek (Yunani) etc. Even today, traditional medicines are used in many households. Though there has been extensive proof of their effectiveness in treatment of gallstones, there is a dearth of scientific literature recording their administration trials and effect on gallstones in vivo and in vitro. Our work was to identify some herbs that are indigenous to this region, available easily, are said to be effective in dissolving gallstones and also to study the effectiveness of their extract in dissolution of the gallstones collected from the government hospitals of Ranchi. In this way we can find a substitute for the surgical methods of removal of gallstones which have several problems and side effects. We had collected and dried sufficient biomass (leaves and stem) for work on 3 herbs- Bhuiamla or break-stone herb (Phyllanthus amarus), Pudina or Mint (Mentha spp) and Chiraita (Swertia chiraita). Solvent extracts using distilled water and the solvents- ethanol, acetone, n-hexane and petroleum ether were prepared. Cholesterol and pigmented gallstones were studied for this purpose. The study showed considerable amount of dissolution of gallstones for the acetone and n-hexane extracts of pudina, chiraita and n-hexane extract of bhumiamla.
Cite this article:
Shukla, Roy and Sharma (2016). Effect of Extracts of Some Medicinal Plants on In-Vitro Dissolution of Gallstones. Journal of Ravishankar University (Part-B: Science), 29(1), pp.125-126.