Safety Evaluation of Sankhaholi (Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.) in the Management of Essential Hypertension: A Randomized Standard Control Trial

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Background: Hypertension is one of the major risk factors for stroke, heart attack, heart failure and kidney failure, thereby causing deaths and disability world-wide. The most predominant type of HTN is essential hypertension (HTN). Unani scholars have mentioned about the clinical manifestations and management of the hypertension and documented it in the context of 'Imtila'. The drug Sankhaholi (Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.) is one of the widely prescribed medicines for the management of essential hypertension in Unani medicine. Material and Methods: The present clinical study was carried out to evaluate the safety of Sankhaholi (Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.) in the management of stage-1 essential hypertension. Newly diagnosed 41 patients of Essential Hypertension (22 patients were in the test group and 19 patients in the control group) were enrolled for the study. All the patients in the test group were given with the test drug 3 g powder of Sankhaholi twice a day for 6 weeks orally. Patients in the control group were given standard drug Ramipril 5 mg once a day for the same duration. Clinical as well as hematological parameters were recorded before and after the treatment. Results: No significant changes are recorded in safety parameters viz. CBC, Haemogram, LFT and KFT. Clinically no adverse effect of the drug has been reported during the course of treatment. Also, significant effect on the systolic blood pressure (p<0.001) were recorded in test group. The drug Sankhaholi was also found effective on the symptoms associated with hypertension. Conclusion: The finding of the study revealed that the test drug Sankhaholi (Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.) is safe and has substantial efficacy as an antihypertensive drug.