ISHS Acta Horticulturae 680: III WOCMAP Congress on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - Volume 6: Traditional Medicine and Nutraceuticals
CONCEPT OF SIDDHA NUTRACEUTICALS |
| Authors: | G. Sivaraman, K. Rajalakshmi |
| Keywords: | functional food, nutraceuticals, Phytodianutra, Siddha medicine |
| Abstract:
Selected foods can improve physical or mental performance or even decrease disease risks. Indeed, this concept is a core principle of Siddha medicine, an ancient Indian system of medicine, which emphasizes “Food is Medicine and Medicine is Food.” Specific Food recipe/grains of food crops is prescribed along with medicines for every ailment. This concept is often sidelined because of over reliance on designed drugs. However, the current trend is to give more emphasis to nutrition, which in turn throws light on the traditional systems of medicine. This paper discusses the effect of nutraceuticals with respect to Siddha Medicine on various diseases such as diabetes, ischemic heart disease, bronchial asthma and HIV/AIDS. A pilot study was conducted with ‘Phytodianutra’ (Arogya®) a traditional Siddha medical food recipe in diabetic mellitus. In this study, Streptozotocin induced diabetic rats were tested with oral glibenclamide alone and glibenclamide with Phytodianutra. Clinical glycemic index (GI) study was carried out with normal and diabetic individuals. Activities of marker enzymes ALT, AST, ALP,  -GT in plasma, liver and kidney of experimental rats in two groups were compared at 15 d and 30 d intervals.
Likewise, hexokinase, lactate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogynase, glucose phosphotase and fructose-1,6-biphosphostase in experimental rats were also compared.
The GI Phytodianutra (Arogya®) was lower (39.4), than for a glucose meal (100) or a rice meal (62).
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