By Udumula Sudhakar Reddy
Can consuming a simple home remedy, like papaya leaf extract, be a solution for dengue? It has often been called a ‘billion-dollar disease’ for the huge economic and medical burden it puts on the TS and AP governments annually and the patient. If the person is admitted to a city private hospital, treatment for dengue would cost no less than Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh, including blood transfusion to increase platelet count and excluding non medical and indirect costs.
With deaths — and cases — reported in Hyderabad and other districts of TS and AP, mostly Anantapur, messages of natural remedies for dengue and other diseases are being circulated widely on social media. The biggest dilemma is ascertaining whether they are scientifically accurate and effective enough to bring down medical expenses.
Chikungunya is another disease that has been afflicting people in TS and AP. Doctors practising natural medicines suggest use of basil leaves (tulsi) for treatment.
Deccan Chronicle spoke to medical experts to find out their efficacy as papaya leaf extract is now available as Tab Cairpill and Tab Platimax.
Dr S.S. Paknikar’s study, Papaya Extract to Treat Dengue: A Novel Thera-peutic Option?
published on the online journal of the National Centre for Biotechnology Information, Bethesda, Maryland, analysed seven published research studies on humans and animals.
It concluded, “From the various reports published in scientific literature, it appears that papaya leaf extract does have beneficial properties in dengue. It has been shown to bring about a rapid increase in platelet count. This could be possibly attributed to its membrane-stabilising property. The flavonoids and other phenols present in the extract seem to provide the beneficial effects. The researchers suggested that the minerals may balance the mineral deficiency caused by the virus and strengthen the immune cells against it.”
Dr Paknikar said, “The picture is not entirely clear. Most of the cases were given a crude leaf extract, prepared by grinding the papaya leaves. In addition to its effect against the virus, the papaya plant also appears to be effective against the Aedes mosquito. Thus, if proved to be effective, this plant could control dengue at two levels: at the level of transmission as well at the host level. Papaya extract, no doubt, offers a cheap and possibly effective treatment for dengue, but until its benefits are established, one cannot ignore standard treatment for dengue. Large scale randomised clinical trials in dengue-confirmed patie-nts are necessary to establish papaya leaf extract’s usefulness.”
Ayurveda doctors recommend papaya leaf extract-based treatment. Some of its benefits, according to them, are that it has anti-inflammatory properties; it inhibits tumours; is antioxidant; protects the liver and kidney; controls the effect of sugar and fat in the body; and has anti-sickling properties in sickle cell diseases.
Dr S. Vidyasagar, an ayurvedic doctor and former chief superintendent of pharmacy, Government Ayurvedic Hospital, Hyderabad, said, “Tulsi and pippali (long pepper fruit) are good for chikungunya. Tulsi, pippali or papaya are considered safe remedies for dengue and will not have side affects on vital organs like the kidney, heart and liver.”
The Central Council of Research in Ayurveda and Siddha in New Delhi endorsed in its technical report the benefits of tulsi in treating chikungunya.
Allopathic doctors give such remedies a thumbs-down. Dr Hari Kishan Boorugu, a consultant physician, said, “Dengue fever has many manifestations: low platelet count is one of them. Dengue patients do not die of low platelet count, but due to dengue shock, multiple organ failure. People panic and tend to give platelet transfusions unnecessarily even when the patient is not bleeding and platelet count is more than 10-15,000. Dengue is a self-resolving illness in most cases , and platelet count improves in almost all patients with supportive treatment alone.”
Regarding papaya leaf research, Dr Hari Kishan said, “There are two papers published about it in the Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, one of them by the manufacturers. These are small studies and their conclusions can be vouched for. They say platelet count improves faster in patients treated with this drug. but overall outcomes are not different. Papaya leaf extract has a few side effects like abdominal cramps and vomiting, symptoms also seen in patients with severe dengue, which can be troublesome. I personally do not prescribe it, but if someone wants to use it, they may. They need to understand these facts.”
Home remedies for common ailments
Do not depend on natural remedies alone as they have to be scientifically proven. Consult your doctor, take medicines as prescribed.
This could be accompanied by a cough due to an infection in the lungs, causing a secretion of mucus. Some home remedies that can be used are:
Boil water. Add a dash of cinnamon, a little piece of ginger, 1 tsp honey and drink.
Heat water with 2 tsp of lemon juice and 2 tsp of honey and sip.
Heat a glass of water, add a tsp of salt and gargle three times a day. Take 1 tsp fresh ginger juice, ½ tsp honey and a pinch of turmeric. Swallow this
mixture at least thrice a day.
Heat ½ glass milk, add less than ¼ tsp of turmeric and sugar (if diabetic, don’t add sugar). Drink while warm.
Avoid milk and milk products for some time if you have excess mucus secretion.
Blow your nose often to emit the mucus rather than sniffing it in.
Hot chicken soup with lots of garlic helps unclog the nasal passages.
Plenty of liquids are beneficial — like two or three cups of tea a day and hot soups. This will replace important fluids lost due to the cold and help flush out impurities.
Chew eight or ten mint (pudina) leaves early in the morning on an empty stomach for one month. Having raw onions along with your meals will also keep acidity at bay.
Drink a glass of lemon juice before each meal to help relieve acidity.
Avoid too much tea, coffee, fried and fermented food as they stimulate acid production.
Take a glass of water 20 minutes before each meal; avoid drinking water along with food.
Drink coconut water three or four times a day (not for diabetics).
Eat a serving of cucumber or watermelon four or five times a day.
Chew seven or eight basil (tulasi) leaves to get relief from acidity and gas.
A glass of buttermilk with little jeera (cumin seeds) added to it helps relieve acidity.
Hiccups
Take a spoonful of sugar and keep under your tongue until the sugar melts. Suck two to three pieces of ginger. This helps stop hiccups from recurring. Hold your breath for 30 seconds. If the hiccups do not stop, repeat the procedure twice.
Take a glass of water and gulp it down without pausing. Boil ½ tsp of cardamom in 1 cup of water and sip like tea.
Sinus
Soak four to five dried pieces of amla (gooseberry) overnight in water. Drink the liquid in the morning on an empty stomach. Repeat the process for at least one month.
Diarrhoea
Take 1 tsp of mustard seeds (rai) and swallow it with 1 glass of lukewarm water.
Take 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds (methi), add 1 tsp of curd and swallow.
Eat stewed apples every day. Steam the apple with the peel on till soft, then skin, mash and consume.
Eat boiled sweet potatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper, to cure diarrhoea.
Take ½ tsp powdered nutmeg, combined with honey.
Bananas —two or three of the smaller, yellow variety or one or one-and-a-half of the regular ones — help bind stools.
Stomach ache
Add a pinch of rock salt (black salt) to 1 tsp of ajwain (carom seeds, or wamu in Telugu); chew and swallow with one glass of lukewarm water.
Boil 1 tsp of ajwain in a glass of water and keep sipping it through the day.
Take 1 tsp of mint juice with1 tsp of honey.
Sip cinnamon tea throughout the day.
Boil 1 tsp of powdered cinnamon in 1 cup of water and sip.
Chew one betel leaf with one small crystal of rock salt for instant relief.
Constipation
In addition to your regular water intake, have at least three to four glasses of warm water with honey added to it (diabetic patients should avoid the honey).
Eat apples, along with the skin, daily.
Eat bran rotis. Make them by using 50 percent wheat flour and 50 percent bran flour. It will add fibre to your diet.
Eat 1 serving of raw salads with every meal.
Eat two to three ripe bananas to add bulk to your stools (diabetic patients should avoid this).
Anaemia
Soak black raisins overnight in water and have in the morning on an empty stomach for one month.
Add 2 tsp of powdered black sesame seeds (til) to ½ glass lukewarm water and have every morning.
Eat two to three dates every day (diabetic patients should avoid this).
Vitamin C is required for iron to get absorbed in the body. Squeeze lemon juice on iron rich foods like rice flakes or dark green leafy vegetables.
Dengue fever:
Include lots of fruits in the diet. Juice from papaya leaves to be taken every day for one week to improve the platelet count.
— As told by Dr M Gayatri, clinical dietician
How much to rely on the papaya leaf?
A pilot study was conducted in Sri Lanka on 12 patients suspected of suffering from dengue on the efficacy of papaya leaf extracts. The patients received two doses of papaya leaf extract at eight-hour intervals. They also received standard symptomatic care.
The study found an increase in platelets and white blood cell count in patients administered papaya leaf extract within 24 hours of treatment with the extract.
A case report from Pakistan described papaya leaf’s efficacy in the treatment of dengue in a truck driver. He received 25 ml of papaya leaf extract twice a day for five days. A steady increase in the platelet and white blood cell count was observed after two days of treatment.
A study conducted in Indonesia used papaya leaf extract capsules, which contained 70 per cent ethanol extract of papaya leaves. The 80 patients included in the study had high and continuous fever for between two and seven days, thrombocyte count of less than 150,000/iL and hematocrit of 20 per cent or more. They were randomised into two groups; one group received CPC in addition to standard treatment, and the other received only standard treatment for dengue.
The study found that platelets increased faster in those who were administered the CPC. The authors concluded that treatment with CPC could hasten recovery of patients and reduce hospitalisation.
A report on the website of the British Medical Journal described the rapid recovery of platelet counts in two children suffering from dengue. They were administered a spoonful of paste made from ground papaya leaves every four hours. A dramatic increase in platelet counts was observed; in one case, within 12 hours the count increased to 100,000. In the second case, it increased within two days to 250,000.
The Journal of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants cited a study that reported an increase in plate-lets in five patients within 24 hours of taking papaya leaf extract for dengue.
A study conducted in Malaysia had a more systematic approach in evaluating the use of papaya leaf juice in the treatment of dengue. An open-labelled, randomised, controlled trial was conducted on 290 patients between the ages of 18 and 60 years with significantly reduced platelets than normal levels.
How to use papaya leaf extract for dengue fever patients (Not for those allergic to papaya) If the Dengue NS1 antigen test is positive and you are diagnosed with dengue fever you should immediately get treatment from an allopathic doctor. Papaya leaf extract should be used in addition to the normal course of its management. Papaya leaf extract can be given at any stage of the disease. But for best results it should be given from the first day of the fever. Papaya leaf extracts could be taken as syrup; 30ml three times a day before meals for an adult and 5-10ml three times a day for a child.
Method of preparation
50 gm fresh healthy, mature papaya leaves from a fruit-bearing tree.
Wash thoroughly, chop into small pieces, excluding the main stem.
Grind with pestle with 50ml of boiled and cooled water and 25g sugar till a uniform pulp results.
Mix this pulp well and keep for about 30 minutes.
Squeeze pulp by hand: this is the papaya leaf extract
