Antimalarial potential of Nosode 30 and 200 against Plasmodium berghei infection in BALB/c mice.
OBJECTIVE
Homeopathy is considered as an emerging area of alternative medicine which could be established for the global health care. One of the greatest objections to this science lies in its inability to explain the mechanism of action of the micro doses based on scientific experiments and proofs. The present study has been undertaken to screen in vivo antimalarial activity of Malaria Co Nosode 30 and Nosode 200 against Plasmodium berghei infection in BALB/c mice.


METHODS
Peter's 4-day test was used to evaluate the in vivo schizontocidal effect of Nosode 30 and Nosode 200. One month follow-up study was done to calculate the mean survival time of mice in each group. Biochemical analysis was carried out to assess the liver and kidney function tests using diagnostic kits.


RESULTS
Nosode 30 and 200 exhibited 87.02 and 37.97% chemosuppression on Day 7 and mean survival time (MST) of 18.5 ± 2.16 and 16.5 ± 1.37 days respectively, which were extremely statistically significant when compared to MST of infected control (8.55 ± 0.83 days). The safety of Nosode 30 was also confirmed by the comparable levels of ALP, SGOT, SGPT activities, concentration of bilirubin, urea and creatinine to CQ treated group.


CONCLUSIONS
Nosode 30 possesses considerable in vivo antiplasmodial activity against P. berghei infection as compared to Nosode 200 as evident from the chemosuppression obtained using Peter's 4-day test. Further, studies on the drug can be carried out to establish its antimalarial potential in monotherapy or in combination with other homeopathic drug formulations.
Parasitology Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.
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U
Bagai
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A
Rajan
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Kaur
D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D007668:Kidney / Q000503:physiopathology; D007677:Kidney Function Tests; D008099:Liver / Q000503:physiopathology; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008288:Malaria / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D008419:Materia Medica / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D010962:Plasmodium berghei / Q000187:drug effects / Q000472:pathogenicity; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000962:Antimalarials; D008419:Materia Medica