Efficacy of Vasa Avaleha and its granules on Tamaka Shwasa (bronchial asthma): Open-label randomized clinical study.

Introduction: Bronchial asthma is one of the chronic inflammatory disorders of the respiratory tract causing a huge number of deaths annually. Increased industrialization and pollution are the exacerbating factors for this situation. In Ayurveda, this miserable condition is comparable with Tamaka Shwasa. Synthetic drugs provide instant symptomatic relief in cases of bronchial asthma but are known to develop certain adverse drug reactions. Considering this, the current suffering population is looking hopefully towards other systems of medicine such as Ayurveda for better relief. Ayurveda has a number of formulations to treat Tamaka Shwasa and is in practice with proven efficacy.

Aims: To evaluate comparative clinical efficacy of Vasa Avaleha (VA) and its granules (GVA) in cases of Tamaka Shwasa.

Materials And Methods: A total of 66 patients were registered and randomly grouped into A and B. Patients of Group A were treated with VA, while Group B with GVA at dose of 6 g twice a day with lukewarm water for the duration of 28 days. Follow-up was done after 14 days. The results were assessed in terms of clinical recovery, symptomatic relief, and pulmonary function improvement. Effect of the treatment was assessed based on subjective and objective parameters.

Results: Significant improvement was observed in most of the cardinal and associated symptoms. Significant increase in peak expiratory flow rate, considerable decrease in absolute eosinophil count, and increased breath holding time were noticed. Withdrawal of modern emergency drugs, decreased frequency of attacks, improved quality of life were the major observations noticed in both groups.

Conclusions: This study highlights the significance of traditional herbal formulations in noncommunicable diseases such as bronchial asthma, which can be used as an effective drug in place or along with modern drugs.