ABSTRACT:
Bronchial asthma is a common disease around the world and nearly 7.2% (100 million people) have the disease. Presently anti-inflammatory drugs (corticosteroids), mast cell stabilizers (cromolyn), Leucotrine antagonists (zafirlukast) bronchodilators (theophylline) and anti-cholinergics (ipratropium) serve as the mainstay of treatment. But these drugs have their interest limitations in forms of toxicities and high cost of chronic therapy. Therefore suitable herbal remedies are being explored for scientific validation regarding their broncho-protective effect. Ginger has been used by traditional Chinese and Indian medicine for over 25 centuries. The rhizomes and stems of ginger in various forms and routes have been used for their antiemetic effects in motion sickness, sea sickness, hyperemesis, gravidarum, postoperative vomiting and vomiting induced by cytotoxic compounds, for which scientific evidence is either good or unclear. Ginger has also been used as appetizer, digestant, anti-flatulant, carminative, anti-diabetic and anti-migraine agent. Ginger which is distributed throughout India is widely used in Ayurvedic medicine for its anti inflammatory, anti-arthritic analgesic and antiulcer properties. Apart from that, ginger is also used for a wide array of other conditions, without scientific evidence of benefit i.e. asthma. With this background, the present work has been undertaken to evaluate the broncho-protective effect of aqueous extract of Z.officinale in one animal model of asthma (histamine induced asthma in guinea pigs). These important and significant preliminary findings can be taken as the basis upon which further studies should be carried out to delineate the detailed profile of these pharmacological actions of ginger.