Pharmaceutical and Analytical Study of Pippali Ghrita and Assessment of Its Hepatoprotective Activity Against Anti Tubercular Drug Induced Hepatotoxicity

Abstract

With a large worldwide burden, tuberculosis has a reputation as a horrible disease. The existing treatment for ATT is quite effective in managing its acute infection. However, this treatment consists of medications that are extremely harmful to the liver. The incidence of hepatotoxicity in this multi-drug regimen is predicted to be 2-4%. It usually manifests as acute hepatitis within the first two months of starting the medication. Currently, there are no definitive and effective treatments to prevent or minimise hepatic injury. Several medicines, including Silymarin and N-acetyl-Cysteine, have been explored for their efficacy. However, there is still an essential but underexplored part. Traditional medicinal systems, particularly Ayurveda, have offered considerable hope in the treatment of infectious and non-infectious disorders. As previously stated, Ayurveda developed a disease combination known as Rajayakshma, which is similar to tuberculosis. Many plants and mixtures are included in Ayurvedic texts for this purpose. Some of them have been researched for their anti-tubercular properties and have proven useful. Pippali Ghrita is a concoction supplemented with the anti-tubercular plant Pippali (Piper longum), jaggery, and goat milk in a cow ghee medium. The co-administration of Pippali Ghrita with ATT drugs in experimental animals produced significant decrease in liver weight and biochemical parameters of ALT, AST and Malondialdehyde. It also helped to increase the body weight and biochemical parameter of SOD related to managing oxidative stress. These effects were very comparable to conventionally used drug, Silymarin. In this way, co-administration of Pippali Ghrita, an Ayurvedic formulation, significantly protected rats from anti-tubercular drug-induced hepatotoxicity by lowering oxidative stress and liver damage. As a result, it is useful in preventing this condition. newline