What is it about?
'Panchgavya' is a traditional Indian formulation made by mixing five different ingredients derived from cow. It is taken orally as part of certain rituals. As this mixture contains live bacteria, it can be expected to be 'biologically active'. We tried to investigate whether pre-feeding nematode worms with 'Panchgavya' can offer them any protection against subsequent attack by bacterial pathogens; and in our experiments it did so.
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Why is it important?
Resistance to conventionally used antibiotics among pathogenic bacteria is a global problem. This requires finding new antibiotic as well as non-antibiotic approaches to deal with bacteria infections. Since the traditionally used 'Panchgavya' formulation has been found in our study to possess some prophylactic potential against four pathogenic bacteria, mass administration of a standardized 'Panchgavya' formulation seems a concept worthy of pursuing further. This may emerge as an effective non-antibiotic approach towards reducing the infection burden among human populations. Our work assumes additional importance from the fact that three of the test bacteria against which 'Panchgavya' could offer some protection to the host worms were multi-drug resistant.
Perspectives
This study validates the traditional use of 'Panchgavya' mentioned in ancient texts of Indian system of traditional medicine i.e. 'Ayurved', through a preliminary in vivo assay. Further work on standardization of this formulation, and identifying different microorganisms present in it can help in translating the health benefits of this formulation to masses. I believe that such efforts of generating scientific evidence regarding efficacy of traditional formulations will enable wider acceptance of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), provided policy makers, concerned regulatory bodies, scientific community and general public recognize the utility of such evidence-based Traditional Medicine (TM). TM has an additional advantage of their safety being already empirically been demonstrated through the long-term usage by community.
Dr Vijay Kothari
Institute of Science, Nirma University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Prophylactic potential of a Panchgavya formulation against certain pathogenic bacteria, F1000Research, October 2018, Faculty of 1000, Ltd.,
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.16485.1.
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