The New Nation - Internet Edition

Jamayet Ali

Eshopgol is an important ingredient in preparing medicine in Aurvedic and Unani system. It is commonly known as Bhusi, available in the market both in towns and rural Bangladesh. There are no well-defined or commonly accepted standards of quality in vogue and each manufacture prepares his own grades by mixing varying proportions of husk obtained from different millings. The quality of husk is determined by its size, colour, presence of red scrapings of the upper layer of the kernel, husk powder and dust. Husk of large size, white in colour and free from red scrapings, is the best.

Botanical name of Eshopgol is Plantago ovata. It is indigenous to the Mediterian region and west Asia, extending up to Sind in West Pakistan. It has gradually been introduced into India. Attempts have been made to cultivate it in USA. Eshopgol is a hardy and can be grown on a variety of soil, but it does well on rich, well-drained losamy soil. The seed mucilage is used in cosmetics and as a basic stabiliser in ice-cream industry. It is also useful for sizing purposes and for the preparation of chocolates. Made into a paste, the husk forms an excellent thickener either alone or in mixture with wheat starch paste. A 19fdkjhksj useful as a substitute for agar-agar can be obtained by treating the husk with hot caustic soda solution and subsequent neutralisation.

Medicinal Properties: The seeds are sweet, acrid, mucilaginous, astringent to the bowels, tonic; useful in "kapha", biliousness, dysentery and leprosy; cause flatulence (Ayurveda). The seeds are cooling, demulcent; useful in inflammatory and bilious derangements of the digestive organs; applied as poultice to rheumatic and gouty swellings; good in dysentery and irritation of the intestinal tract; decoction useful in cough and chronic diarrhoea (Yunani).

Demulcent, and mildly astringent. The seeds have been found serviceable in febrile, catarrhal, and renal affections, but their chief use is in diarrhoea and dysentery. Moistened with water, they form a good emollient poultice. The seeds yield to water a good deal of mucilage, and form a cooling demulcent drink which is prescribed in cases where emollients are required. A slight degree of astringency and some tonic property may be imparted to the seeds by application of a moderate degree of heat, and it is said that this remedy cures the chronic diarrhoea of European and native children on the failure of other medicines.

The crushed seeds made into a poultice with vinegar and oil are applied to rheumatic and gouty swellings. With the mucilage a cooling lotion for the head is made. Two or three drachms moistened with hot water and mixed with sugar are given in dysentery and irritation of the intestinal canal to produce an easy stool. The decoction is prescribed in cough. The roasted seeds have been an astringent effect, and are useful in irritation of the bowels in children and in dysentery. Eshopgol seeds have demulcent and diuretic properties and are generally used in inflammatory conditions of the mucous membrane of gastro-intestinal and genitor-urinary tracts. They are generally given in the water of tender coconuts. The seeds were given in the form of an infusion in cases of specific urethritis and found to relieve considerably the burning and irritation accompanying the disease (Koman) The seeds of P. ovata are very beneficial in chronic dysenteries of amoebic and bacillary origin and chronic diarrhoea due to irritative conditions of the gastro-intestinal tract. A glucoside named aucubin has been found in the seeds, but it is physiologically inactive. The tannins which are present in appreciable quantities have little action on the entamoeba or bacteria. The action of the drug would therefore appear to be purely mechanical, being due to the large amount of mucilage which is contained in the superficial layers of the seeds. This mucilage is shown not to be acted on by the digestive enzymes, and therefore passes though the small intestine unchanged. It lines the mucous membrane of this part of the gut and its demulcent properties give it a protective and sedative action. In the large gut the intestinal bacteria have been shown to have little or no action on the mucilage. Practically the whole of it is passed out unchanged during the 12 to 24 hours following its administration. During its passage through the gut it coats the inflamed and ulcerated mucosa and protects it from being irritated by the fluids and gases, the products of gastro-intestinal and bacterial digestion. This enables the lesions to heal quickly. The toxins present in the gut are further absorbed by the gel and their absorption into the system is prevented. The seeds are taken in large quantities and as they swell up in contact with water they increase the bulk ofthe intestinal contents and in this way relieve chronic constipation by mechanically stimulating the intestinal peristalsis. The mucilage of P. ovata seeds acts in very much the same way as liquid paraffm. It is very much cheaper and is further free from the injurious effects produced by the habitual use of the latter drug, e.g., malignant diseases of the colon, eczema ani, paraffin pains, etc., (R.N. Chopra; Ind. Med. Gazette, August 1930, Indian Medicinal Plants, K.R. Kirtikar & B.D. Basu, 240,241)

Medicinal values: Eshopgol or "spogel" seeds are not mentioned by Sanskrit writers on medicine and were apparently unknown to them. They are however, very frequently referred to by Arabian and Persian writers, who appear to have long held the medicine in high esteem. The Persian physician Alherbi mentions them in the tenth century, a little later Avicenna refers to the drug and nearly all subsequent writers on Muhammadan medicine ascribe valuable properties to Eshopgol.

Fluckiger and Hanbury state that its valuable qualities were first brought to the notice of European science in 1719 by Luick, and towards the end of the century, Fleming, Ainslie, and Roxburgh have all something to say in its favour. Ainslie writes, "These seeds are of a very cooling nature and form a rich mucilage with boiling water, which is much used by native practitioners and indeed of late years by the European medical officers of India, in cases of catarrah, gonorrhoea and nephritic affections."

Fleming makes a similar statements regarding the utilisation of the drug in Bengal, "in all diseases in which acrimony is to be obviated or palliated." Later the valuable demulcent properties which they possess in cases of dysentery and certain forma of diarrhoea, were forcibly brought to notice by twining (Diseases of Bengal, 1,212) and in 1868 the seeds were admitted as officinal to the Indian Pharmacopaeia.

Some authors recommend that the seeds should be administered dry in doses of two and half drachms. Others prefer its exhibition as a mucilaginous decoction, four drachms being boiled in two pints of till the quantity is reduced to a pint and the whole given, in divided does, in the course of a day. The latter course appears to be best adapted for cases of dysentery, while the former is most efficacious iiJ. diarrhoea, especially the chronic diarrhoea of children and "hill" diarrhoea. A slight degree of astringency may, it is said, be imparted to the seeds by slightly heating them. By natives they are considered cooling and demulcent, and are chiefly employed in diarrhoea, dysentery, other inflammatory and functional derangements of the digestive organs and fever.

The crushed seeds made into a poultice are applied to rheumatic and gouty swellings. A cooling lotion for the head is prepared from mucilage and a decoction is prescribed in cases of cough and colds. There is little doubt that mucilaginous decoction is a valuable adjunct to other curative agents in the treatment of dysentery and diarrhoea, important point in its favour being that it has no unpleasant taste and may be prescribed, while any other drug is being at the same time administered.

Eshopgol has attracted little attention in European medicine outside our subcontinent, though it is probably worthy of a fair trial in cases of ordinary and summer diarrhoea. Mr. Cristy recommends the seeds as a valuable remedy in fowl diarrhoea. The dried seeds and husk are used as a emollient, demulcent and laxative, and in the treatment of chronic coustipation, a moebic and bacillary dysentery and diarrhoea due to irritative conditions of gastro intestinal tract. Eshopgol preparations are given after colostomy to assist the production of smooth solid faecal mass. In indigenous medicine the seeds are considered cooling and diuretic as well, and recommended in febrile conditions and the affections of kidneys, bladder and urethra. A decoction of seeds is prescribed in cough and cold, and the crushed seeds made into a poultice are applied to rheumatic and glandular swellings (IP., 35354: Chopra, 1958,380,382)

Alcoholic extracts of the seeds exhibit cholinergic properties. They lower the blood pressure in anaesthetized cats and dogs, inhibit the isolated and perfused hearts of rabbits and frogs and stimulate the movements of intestines of rabbits, rats and guinea-pigs. The activity of the extract on smooth muscle is inhibited by atropine (Khorana etal. Indian J. Pharm. 1958, 20,3)

Special opinions: "A very valuable remedy in the treatment of chronic dysentery. I have used it largely with good results and can bear personal testimony of its efficacy. I use it in spoonful doses of the whole seed, steeped for 15 or 20 minutes in water, the resulting mucilaginous mass being swallowed. Many of the swollen seeds pass out whole with the motions, and I believe their actions to be mechanical as well as astringent to the intestinal ulcers. I have used it largely for dysentery and chronic diarrhoea in both European and natives and consider it a very valuable medicine" (Surgeon C.H. Foubert, DaIjiling)."Useful in gonorrhoea, as well as in diarrhoea and dysentery" (Assistant Surgeon T.N. Ghose, Meerat). "The mucilage is very useful in cases of heat and scalding during micturition taken in the form of sherbet with sugar candy." (Asstt. Surgeon S.C. Bhattachargi (Dictionary Of The Economic Products Of India)