PLUMBAGO ZEYLANICA L. (CHITRAK) A GASTROINTESTINAL FLORA NORMALISER

Summary

The roots of Ghitrak are recommended in Ayurveda as Deepaniya–appetiser and Pachaniya–digestive. In order to see how Chitrak roots could act as digestive stimulant they were tested for the digestive enzymes and vitamins and found that the roots are not significantly rich in any of these constituents. It has been shown that the addition of Chitrak to the food of growing rats did not increase the digestibility of proteins of Cicer arietinum. It has been established that the feeding of Chitrak root stimulates the proliferation of coliform bacteria in mice. Quantitative data on the above has been adduced by using a special dilution method of obtaining bacterial counts. The data has been statistically analysed and the increase in coliform bacteria due to Chitrak feeding has been shown to be significant at 5 % level. This coliform proliferation action of Chitrak has been shown to be similar to that of 'Mexaform' a CIBA drug used to counteract the bacterial action of antibiotics.

It has therefore been suggested that the claims of the ancients that Chitrak is 'digestive stimulant' and an 'appetiser' is most probably due to its action as an Intestinal Flora Normalizer in the animal body.

Zusammenfassung

Zubereitungen aus den Wurzeln von Plumbago zeylanica (Chitrak) werden in Indien innerlich und äußerlich in großem Umfange angewendet. Bei interner Applikation sollen verdauungsfördernde und appetitanregende Wirkungen zu erzielen sein, während die äußerliche Anwendung gegen Schwellungen und Hautaffektionen gerichtet ist.

Eine eingehende Überprüfung der innerlichen Aktivität der Droge im Tierversuch ergab, daß die bekannte, fördernde Wirkung auf Verdauung und Appetit sehr wahrscheinlich auf die Normalisierung der Intestinalflora der Versuchstiere zurückzuführen ist.