Evaluation of Ophthacare^® eye drops—a herbal formulation in the management of various ophthalmic disorders

Abstract

An open prospective multicentre clinical trial was conducted in patients suffering from various ophthalmic disorders namely, conjunctivitis, conjunctival xerosis (dry eye), acute dacryocystitis, degenerative conditions (pterygium or pinguecula) and postoperative cataract patients with a herbal eye drop preparation (Ophthacare) containing basic principles of different herbs which have been conventionally used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine since time immemorial. These include Carum copticum, Terminalia belirica, Emblica officinalis, Curcuma longa, Ocimum sanctum, Cinnamomum camphora, Rosa damascena and meldespumapum. These herbs reportedly possess antiinfective and antiinflammatory properties. The present study was undertaken to elucidate the role of this herbal product in a variety of eye ailments. Side effects, if any, were noted during the study. An improvement was observed with the treatment of the herbal eye drop treatment in most cases. There were no side effects observed during the course of the study and the eye drop was well tolerated by the patients. The herbal eye drop Ophthacare has a useful role in a variety of infective, inflammatory and degenerative ophthalmic disorders.

Hydroalcoholic extract ofEmblica officinalisprotects against kainic acid-induced status epilepticus in rats: Evidence for an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective intervention

“…The pharmacological studies on fruit of E. officinalis has revealed that it has good antioxidant, cytoprotective and immunomodulatory, cardioprotective, antiulcerogenic, antimutagenic, and hepatoprotective activity (Khan & Khan, 2009;Sharma et al, 2009;Kim et al, 2010). Different clinical studies have also reported that E. officinalis has hypolipidemic, antibacterial, and antidiabetic activity (Jacob et al, 1988;Biswas et al, 2001;Chandra et al, 2004).…”

Rosa Damascena—Genetic Resources and Capacity Building for Molecular Breeding

“…Smaller amounts of rose oil and mainly rose water are produced in the countries of northern Africa. the price of the rose oil has been growing during the last years reaching 5000 eUR/kg in 2007. the rose oil and rose flower extracts have been studied for a number of health-beneficial effects including antibacterial activity (4,8), antioxidant activity (2, 41), antiinfective and anti-inflammatory properties (11), relaxant effects on tracheal chains (13) and anti-HIV activity (35). Positive health-beneficial effects have been reported in most of the studies, however the identification of the respective active compounds requires further investigation.…”

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“…The use of medicinal plants is based on the experience of many generations of physicians and traditional systems of medicine from different ethnic societies 15 . The use of medicinal plants in modern medicine suffers from the fact that although hundreds of plants are used in the world to prevent or to cure diseases, scientific evidence in terms of modern medicine is lacking in most cases.…”

“…The use of medicinal plants in modern medicine suffers from the fact that although hundreds of plants are used in the world to prevent or to cure diseases, scientific evidence in terms of modern medicine is lacking in most cases. However, today it is necessary to provide scientific proof as to whether or not it is justified to use a plant or its active principles 15 . Ophthalmic disease problems afflict a substantial portion of the population 15 .The descriptions of disease following approaches are expected to increase the modern application of traditional knowledge for their scientific rationality and therapeutic application 16 .…”