Background: Oral cancer is one of the most fatal health problems faced by the mankind today. Oral cancer ranks as the eighth most common cancer in developing countries. A high incidence of oral cancer is observed in the Indian sub-continent which accounts for one third of the world burden. In India, because of cultural, ethnic, geographic factors and the popularity of addictive habits, the frequency of oral cancer is high. It is estimated that about 56 thousand new cases are reported each year in India resulting in about one lakh individuals suffering from the disease at any given time. Cancer or precancer states can be found in individuals who are non-smokers and quid chewers. The possibility of alteration of various antioxidant levels due to presence of carcinogens in the blood plays a key role in the development of malignant states.Methods: The material for the present study comprise of 50 subjects selected at randomly. After recording history regarding habits, thorough clinical examination the patients clinically diagnosed as oral cancer underwent biopsy to confirm histopathologically. A total of 2.5ml ml of blood was drawn from the mid-cubital vein with necessary aseptic precautions and transferred to sterile vacutainers. Serum was separated immediately by centrifugation at 2000rpm for 15mins for the estimation of antioxidants namely ceruloplasmin, malondialdehyde, glutathione using photometric method.Results: The mean values of Ceruloplasmin (the mean values for controls 32.87, oral cancer 40.49), Glutathione (controls 4.46 oral cancer 5.55), malondialdehyde (controls 2.97, oral cancer 4.34) were compared using students t-test. The mean values of antioxidants were significantly increased in cancer compared to controls (pvalue < 0.05), It can be observed from the results that values of enzyme increased from controls to Oral cancer.Conclusions: It can be stated with our study that the antioxidant defence mechanism constitute a very important defence system against the free radical injury of the cells. The antioxidants come into play not only during minor free radical injurious process but also when the malignancy develops. Hence the antioxidants play a vital role as valuable markers in diagnosing oral cancer.

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Background: Plants are a good source of drugs in traditional and modern medicine. One among these plants is "tulasi" The queen of herbs" which is used in ayurveda for its diverse properties like antioxidant, analgesic, antiinflammatory, antidiabetic, and others. It belongs to labiate family and is the most sacred and valued in traditional culture of India. AIMS of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of Tulasi in the treatment of OSMF. Methods: The study included 20 individuals, females and males of age group 20-50yrs who visited the outpatient department who were diagnosed clinically as having OSMF, categorized according to pindborg's classification. Patients were asked to apply 500mg of Tulasi medicine paste (Tulasi powder mixed with glycerine) twice daily for 1month and were recalled for follow up every week for 1month. All the clinical parameters -mouth opening, burning sensation, pain with the lesion and others were evaluated and recorded in specially designed proforma. Results: Friedman test and wilcoxon signed rank test was used for statistical evaluation. Significant improvement with P value <0.05 was noticed in burning sensation, mouth opening and pain associated with the lesion. Conclusions: The study concludes that Tulasi can be used as a main treatment modality in the management of patients with OSMF.