An overview of the Herbs in a Siddha Polyherbal decoction-Pidangunaari Kudineer indicated for Hepatomegaly

Handa et al., 1986 noted that in India, more than 87 plants are used in 33 patented and proprietary multi-ingredient plant formulations for liver protection. Siddha Materia Medica illustrates a safer, cheap and potential hepatoprotective polyherbal decoction ‘Pidangunaarikudineer’ comprised of three herbal ingredients such as leaves of Premna tomentosa, pericarp ofripe fruits of Terminalia chebula, rhizomes of Curcuma longa. This formulation is very effective against hepatitis in the clinical practice. The goal of this systematic review of the literature was to summarize the literature on the safety and hepatoprotective activity of above herbs. A manual search of bibliographies of papers identified through an Internet search using multiple search engines. Textbooks on herbal medicine and their bibliographies were also searched. Result and Conclusion: A large number of in vitro, in vivo, human clinical studies on those herbs were identified. These included studies on the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antihepatoxicity induced by acetaminophen and antituberculosis drugs, anticarcinogenicity, antimicrobial properties and also phytocompounds were identified to justify the safety and hepatoprotective efficacy. Ethnic background of these herbs results liver protection make Pidangunaari Kudineer for further screening for hepatoprotection.