Adhatoda vasica: A Miracle and Boon for Asthmatic people - A Review

 

Ravindra Singh¹, Aakanksha Tiwari²*

¹Head of Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science and Environment, Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalya, Chitrakoot, Satna (M.P) PIN- 488334 India

² Research Scholar, Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science and Environment, Mahatma Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramodaya Vishwavidyalya, Chitrakoot, Satna (M.P) PIN- 488334 India

 

ABSTRACT:

Adhatoda vasica belonging to Acanthaceae family, commonly known as Adosa, is found in many regions of India and throughout the world, with a multitude of uses in traditional Ayurveda. Vasica is most well-known for its effectiveness in treating respiratory conditions and are highly demandable in pharmaceutical industries. The compound isolated from ethyl acetate fraction of Adhatoda vasica flowers extract has a significant antibacterial activity against bacteria and fungi. Four bacterial strains like S. typhi, E. coli, E. faecalis and B. cereus and two fungal strains such as C. lunata and C.albicans were tested by using disc diffusion method. The anti bacterial activity of the compound isolated from ethyl acetate fraction is almost comparable with the standard Chloramphenicol and the anti-fungal activity of the compound isolated from ethyl acetate fraction is almost comparable with the standard Fluconazole. These are the drugs from Adhatoda vasica flowers that either destroy or inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi. It has also the ability to prevent or treat bacterial and fungal infections. Further studies are highly needed for future drug development. The present research aims to compile medicinal values of Adhatoda vasica flowers generated through the research activity using modern scientific approaches and innovative scientific tools.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Adhatoda vasica belonging to family Acanthaceae, commonly known as Adusa, is a small evergreen shrub found in many regions of India and throughout the World. Vasica is most known for its effectiveness in treating respiratory conditions. Vasica shows an antispasmodic and expectorant effect, and has been used for centuries with much success to treat asthma, chronic bronchitis, and other respiratory conditions. It is well known in Ayurveda by its Sanskrit name Vasaka and commonly known as Adusa.

First botanically described as Justicia adhatoda by Linnaeus (Species Plantarum, 1753), redefined as Adhatoda vasica by Nees (1831) the name by which it is generally known today. The leaves of Adusa have been in use in Indian systems of medicine for last more than 2000 years. The plant is appreciated for containing bronchodilator alkaloids, mainly vasicine. All parts of the plant are used in herbal medicine and particularly the leaves are endorsed with insecticidal and parasiticidal properties. It is a licensed drug and is mentioned in the India Pharmacopoeia (Anonymous, 1966).

 

Boiled leaves are used to treat rheumatic pain and to relieve the pain of urinary tract infections. It is used in some parts of India to stimulate uterine contractions and thus speeding childbirth. The vast variety of pharmacological is believed to be result of its rich concentrations of alkaloids. The prominent alkaloid found in Adhatoda vasica leaves is the quinazoline alkaloid known as vasicine. In 2007 survey cum study on demand and supply of medicinal plants in India by National Medicinal Plants Board, New Delhi through foundation for revitalization of Local Health Traditions, Banglore listed Adhatoda vcasica. Under top 36 medicinal plants species in high trade and consumed in volumes exceeding 100MT per year. This plant show low seed germination and conventional propagation through cutting is slow. Chemical compounds found in Adhatoda leaves include essential oils, fats, sugar, resin, gums, amino acids, proteins and vitamin C. At high concentrations, vasicine offered significant protection against histamine induced bronchospasm in guinea pig. Vasicinone, the auto oxidation product of vasicine has been reported to cause bronchodilatory effects both invivo and invitro. Of the two alkaloids, vasicinone was found to be more potent than vasicine with potential antiasthmatic activity comparable to the disodium cromoglycate. For the quantitation of vasicine, spectophotometric, tritrimetric and HPTLC methods are available but they lack precision and accuracy because of low sensitivity and due to interference by other compound. The analytical method HPLC method has been developed for the quantification of vasicine and vasicinone in vasica plant extract that is suitable for the rapid screening purpose of different genetical and agronomical field experiments.

 

A new method of capillary electrophoresis was developed for the quantitative determination of  vasicinine from Adhatoda vasicine. The method was validated in terms of reproductibility, accuracy, linearity and applied for the quantitative determination of vasicine and vasicinone in Adhatoda vasica.

 

Antiasthmatic and anticough activity against upper respiratory infections:

The leaves of Adhatoda vasica are most commonly used in respiratory disorders in Ayurveda. The alkaloids, vasicine and vasicinone present in the leaves possess respiratory stimulant activity (Baquar, 1997).

 

Adhatoda vasica leaves shows the antitussive activity against the guinea pig similar to that of codeine against coughing induced by irritant aerosols (Dhuley, 1999).

 

An herbal tea of an expectorant action was prepared with Adhatoda vasica leaves. The prepared herbal basal tea is proposed as a good expectorant (Ashish and Kabir, 2009).

 

Adhatoda has been used in traditional medicine to treat respiratory disorders. Both vasicine and vasicinone the primary alkaloid constituents of Adhatoda as well established as therapeutical respiratory agents (Dorsch and Wagner, 1991).

 

Anti-ulcer activity:

Adhatoda vasica in addition to its classically established pharmacological activities, also has a immense potential as an anti-ulcer agent of great theurapetic relevance. Adhatoda vasica was studied for its anti-ulcerogenic activity against ulcer induced by ethanol, pylorus and aspirin. Adhatoda vasica leaf powder showed a considerable degree of anti-ulcer activity in experimrntal rats when compared with controls (Shrivastava and Nivsakar, 2006).

 

Antioxidant and anti-clastogenic activity:

It shows the antioxidant and anti-clastogenic efficacy against cadmium chloride-induced renal oxidative stress and genotoxicity in Swiss albino mice supports its antimutagenic efficacy (Jahangir and Khan 2006).

 

Antibacterial activity:

Alcoholic extracts of leaves and roots of Adhatoda vasica showed antibacterial against Staphylococcus aurrus and E.coli whereas water extracts showed activity against S. aureus only. A leaf extracts was investigated for antibacterial activity using the paper disc and dilution methods. The invitro screening showed strong activity of Adhatoda vasica against the bacteria Psrudomonas aeruginosa.

 

The in vitro antimicrobial activity of Adhatoda vasica extracts were also studied against Bacillus subtilis, E.coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella and Staphylococcus by using agar well diffusion assay. The study indicates that Adhatoda vasica present a remarkable potential of antibacterial activities. Medicinal plants represent a rich source from which antimicrobial agents may be obtained.

 

The plant volatile oils were used for their antibacterial properties against 25 genera of bacteria, using agar diffusion technique (Deans and Ritchie, 1987). In the present study, we have chosen Adhatoda vasica as herbal medicine to determine their antibacterial property. Evidently, there are not sufficient scientific studies that confirm the antimicrobial activity of this plant. This study looks into the invitro antimicrobial activity of ethyl acetate extracts of this plant against some gram-positive and gram-negative pathogenic microorganisms that causes the most common cases of infectious disease (Shrivastava et al., 2006).

 

Insecticidal activity:

Adhatoda vasica has been used for centuries in India as an insecticide. Its leaves have been used to control insect pests in oil seeds, in both laboratory and warehouse condition. The effects were more prolonged when estrogen were used as a priming influence indicating that the actions of vasicine was probably mediated via the release of prostaglandins  leaf extracts showed the anti-feedent activity against Spodoptera. It is an insecticidal activity.

 

Anti-allergy activity:

Vasicinone has been shown to be a potent anti-allergen in tests on mice, rats and guinea pig. The extracts containing the alkaloid vascinol and 20% vasicine inhibited ovalbumin induced allergic reactions by about 37% at a concentration of 5mg (Paliwa and Dwivedi, 2000).

 

Anti-tubercular activity:

A chemical constituents of Adhatoda alkaloid, vasicine produces bromhexine and ambroxol- two widely used mucolytics. Both of these chemicals have a Ph dependant growth inhibitory effect on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Indirect effect of Adhatoda on tuberculosis include increased lysozyme and rifampicin levels in bronchial secretions, lung tissue and sputum (Narimaian and Badalyan, 1996; Grange and Snell, 2005).

 

Abortifacient and uterotonic activity:

Adhatoda vasica has abortifacient and uterotonic properties, making it useful for inducing abortion and for stimulating uterine contractions in order to speed childbirth (Claeson et al., 2000). Studies on human subjects have shown that the alkaloid vasicine has significant uterotonic activity. This action appears to be influenced by the presence or absence of certain estrogens. In research on the activity of vasicine in stimulating uterine contractions, human myometrial strips taken from the uterusi of both pregnant and non-pregnant women were treated with Adhatoda. The herb was found to induce uterine contractions, with effectiveness similar to the drug oxytocin (Pahwa et al., 1987). During the research period, the anti-reproductive properties of Adhatoda vasica were anecdotally confirmed by local women (Gupta et al., 1987). Animal studies have also demonstrated vasica’s abortifacient properties. Aqueous or 90% ethanol plant extracts were given orally to test rats and guinea pigs for 10 days after insemination.

 

CONCLUSION:

Adhatoda vasica possess many biological activities proved by many experimental studies. It represents a class of herbal drug with a very strong conceptual or traditional base as well as a strong experimental base for its use. Thus, this plant has a great potential to be developed as drug pharmaceuticals industries but before recommending it for clinical use in these conditions, there is a need to conduct clinical use in these condition, there is a need to conduct clinical trials and prove its clinical utility.

 

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Received on 10.09.2016       Modified on 05.10.2016

Accepted on 15.10.2016      ©A&V Publications All right reserved