Aqarqarha (Anacyclus Pyrethrum Dc.) a Potent Drug in Unani Medicine: A Review on Its Historical and Phyto-Pharmacological Perspective

Abstract

Aqarqarha (Anacyclus pyrethrum DC.) is a very famous botanical origin drug in Unani system of medicine. It is used since antiquity. It is described by Dioscorides, Galen, Avicena, Avenzoar, Ishaque bin Imran. According to Galen use of this drug is beneficial in chronic Paralysis, Khadar (numbness), toothache, intermittent fever. Rhazes and other Unani physician used it for strengthening the teeth, easy extraction of the teeth, paralysis, facial palsy, epilepsy, colitis, muqawwi-i-bah (aphrodisiac), mharrik-ibah (sexual stimulant), and qate balgham (phelemenogogue). Usually the root of a plant is used as medicine; flowers and leaves are also used in Unani system of medicine. Various activities were evaluated like Spermatogenic, Anti-diabetic, Immunostimulating, Antidepressant, Anti-convulsant, Memory-enhancing and Anticancer Activity. It is used in various oral (Majoone, Tiryaqi, Jawarish) and local formulation (Roghan / oil, Tila / liniment, Sunoon / dentifrices, Qairooti / paste). These all findings reveal immense utility of Aqararha in Unani system of medicine and scope for developing as a potent therapeutic tool.

Review on Indian Medicinal Plant Anacyclus Pyrethrum as Local Anaesthetic and Other Medicinal Value

“…The unani physician used this drug for thousands of years, Dioscorides (1 st century), Ibn Sina, Ishaque bin Imran, Jalinus (131-210 AD), and Marwan bin Zohar, referred to akarkara in their books [13].…”

The impact of hydroalcoholic extract of Anacyclus pyrethrum plant on epileptic seizure induced by pentylenetetrazole in male rat

“…Therefore, by blocking both receptors of GABAergic system by PTZ as a selective antagonist of GABA A receptors and Phaclofen as a selective antagonist of GABA B receptors was tried to determine the possible mechanism of APE on GABAergic system. Recently, people tend to take traditional remedies more than synthetic drugs, because they believe that such herbal medicines have fewer side effects and are cheaper than synthetic drugs [14]. Anacyclus pyrethrum with different names, such as Aqarqarhaa in Greek, Persian, Indianan and Arabic, or Pellitory in English and Akarkara in Hindu, is considered a valuable herb in traditional medicine [15].…”

“…This plant can be harvested twice a year (June and April), but it might contain different components according to the time of harvest [15,16]. Toxicity studies in animal model have shown that consumption of Anacyclus pyrethrum plant up to 2 g per kg/body weight is safe [14,18,19]. Administration of the ethanolic extract of Anacyclus pyrethrum was previously reported to cure epileptic seizures induced by maximum electric shock [15,18].…”