Efficacy of Kantakari Avaleha and its modified dosage form of Kantakari Avaleha granules in the management of bronchial asthma - An open-label randomized controlled clinical trial.

Abstract

Background: Bronchial asthma is a common chronic episodic respiratory disease that resemblance to Tamaka Shwasa in Ayurveda. Kantakari Avaleha is one of the primarily recommended formulations for the management of Shwasa (bronchial asthma), Kasa (cough), and Hikka (hiccup). Although Avaleha dosage forms are better medicaments, granules have an added advantage over them such as palatability, less moisture content, and easy handling. For this purpose, Kantakari Avaleha was modified into Kantakari Avaleha granules by modifying the operational procedures of Kantakari Avaleha.

Aims: To evaluate and compare the efficacy of Kantakari Avaleha and Kantakari Avaleha granules in the management of bronchial asthma.

Materials and method: A total of 69 patients with mild to moderate bronchial asthma were selected randomly and divided into groups A and B. Patients of groups A were treated with Kantakari Avaleha, whereas patients of groups B received Kantakari Avaleha granules. These dosage forms of Kantakari were given in the dose of six grams with lukewarm water before breakfast and dinner for 60 days and followed up for the next 30 days. Assessments were done before and after treatment as per the scoring patterns of international asthma guidelines of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ), Asthma Control Test (ACT), and Respiratory Rate (RR), Breath-Holding Time (BHT), Peak Expiratory Flow Volume (PEFV), and laboratory investigations such as complete blood count, liver and kidney function tests, and urine routine examination were also carried out. Paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were applied to evaluate the effect of therapy in the individual group for the above-mentioned criteria. While the comparison of results between the groups was done by applying the coefficient of variation (CV).

Results: Group A showed better results in most of the cardinal symptoms, ACT, and ACQ, except for BHT, RR, and GINA control in terms of CV. In both the groups, statistically, highly significant improvement was found as per the overall assessment of bronchial asthma such as ACQ, ACT, and number of episodes and the difference between the groups was statistically insignificant.

Conclusion: Both dosage forms of Kantkari were found to be effective treatments for bronchial asthma with significant relieving capacity as internal use for over 2 months. Hence, Kantakari Avaleha granules could be substituted for Kantakari Avaleha.