European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

PHARMACOGNOSTICAL AND HPTLC STUDIES OF HABB-E-HINDI SUAL – A TRADITIONAL UNANI FORMULATION

Shoeb Ahmed Ansari*, Asma Sattar Khan, Rampratap Meena and Mohd Asif

ABSTRACT

People all over the world are accepting traditional medicines as alternative treatment for chronic and common ailments. The most prominent advantage of these medicines is that they are effective with lesser side effects. Some of the countries, which were reluctant to use them because of their quality concerns, are now showing tremendous interest in their therapeutic values. As per WHO estimate, 80 % population of some Asian and African countries uses herbal medicines for their primary healthcare needs. In India alone more than 65% rural population relies on traditional system of medicine including Unani system of medicine. This rapidly growing people’s faith in Unani medicines leads to the necessity of their quality check. It has been found on few occasions that these medicines are prepared in the market with spurious or low quality ingredients. To maintain the quality of the Unani medicines, their standardization is imperative. Habb-e-Hindi Sual is an important herbo-mineral Unani formulation which is used in the treatment of Shaheeqa (Pertussis) & Sual (Cough). The formulation was standardized by adopting standard procedures for physico-chemical, pharmacognostical and HPTLC studies. The other parameters like microbial load, heavy metals, aflatoxins and pesticide residues were also analyzed to ascertain the quality of the medicine. The data produced can be productive for laying down the pharmacopoeial standards and HPTLC fingerprints of Habb-e-Hindi Sual.

Keywords: Microscopy, HPTLC, Aflatoxins, Microbial load, Heavy Metals.