Vol 17, Issue 2, 2024 Online - 2455-3891 Print - 0974-2441 EFFICACY OF HYDROALCOHOLIC EXTRACT OF ACORUS CALAMUS LINN. IN THE MANAGEMENT OF HYPOTHYROIDISM IN ALBINO WISTAR RATS – A REVIEW HIDAYATH KHAN MEHDI 1 , ZAKERA BEGUM 2 1 Department of Ilmul Advia (Pharmacology), Inamdar Unani Medical College, Kalaburagi, Karnataka, India. 2 Department of Amraz-e- Niswan WA Qabalat (OBG), Inamdar Unani Medical College, Kalaburagi, Karnataka, India. ABSTRACT Keywords: Acorus calamus Linn., Unani medicine, Qillat-e-Darqia, Galaganda, Pre-clinical study. INTRODUCTION Hypothyroidism is an endocrine disorder (hypothalamic-pituitary- thyroid disorder) and a metabolic disorder (iodine deficiency). It is defined as a condition in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormones. Decreased secretion of thyroid hormones from the thyroid gland is called hypothyroidism [1,2]. This condition is known as under-active thyroid [5,6]. Iodine deficiency also can lead to hypothyroidism because the thyroid gland needs iodine to make thyroid hormones. However, there are many other causes of hypothyroidism including thyroid gland disease (primary) and conditions of either the pituitary gland (secondary) or hypothalamus (tertiary). In most of the patients, it starts as the glandular inflammation called thyroiditis. It eventually results in fibrosis of the gland. It occurs due to an autoimmune disease (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) which causes destruction of the gland [7]. Globally, about 190 million people are suffering from goiter and nearly 800 million people in developing countries are at risk. The prevalence of goiter in India is 7.3% of the total population. It is very common in females than males. The sub-Himalayan region is estimated that about 55 million people are suffering from endemic goiter and about 150 million are at risk. About 2.2 million are cretins and 6.6 million are having neurological deficits [11-13]. UNANI CONCEPT OF HYPOTHYROIDISM The Unani system of medicine is based on the Hippocratic theory of four humors (humoral theory) which is postulated by the father of medicine Hippocrates (460 B.C), in his book “human nature,” he mentioned that “The body contains four major kinds of humors: Blood, Phlegm, Yellow bile and black bile; a right proportion, according to quality and quantity and mixing of which (homeostasis) constitutes health. Unright proportion and irregular distribution, according to their quantity and quality constitutes disease”[30,33,45,47]. According to Unani concept, any disturbance in the equilibrium of humor causes disease and therefore the treatment aims to restoring the humoral equilibrium. Unani tibb postulates that every person from birth is endowed with a unique Mizaj (temperament) which represents his healthy state [37-40]. The Unani term for hypothyroidism is Qillat-e-Darqia; it means decrease secretion of thyroid hormones from the Ghudda-e-Darqia. The most common cause of Qillat-e-Darqia (hypothyroidism) is predominance of phlegmatic humor due to Su-e-Mizaj Barid Ratab umoomi. It leads to excessive accumulation of phlegm in the body which results in obesity, lethargy, muscle fatigue, generalized edema, and constipation. These are the major symptoms of hypothyroidism. Hence, it is said that there is a correlation between Su-e-Mizaj Barid Ratab umoomi and hypothyroidism [42-44,47-49]. Review literature of test drug The test drug Waj (Acorus calamus Linn) has been used from ancient times in Unani system of medicine by the great Unani physicians as brain cleanser and brain tonic, deobstruent, and resolvent. According to Hakim Najmul Ghani, the test drug Waj has been reported for the management of “galaganda” (swelling of the neck) which can be correlated with hypothyroidism that is evident from historical literature of the Unani system of medicine [25-27]. According to Hakim Kabeer Uddin, it is used as a desiccant of phlegm and very useful in brain and nervine disorders. On the basis of this, the researcher decided to work on this drug to rule out the efficacy of © 2024 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2024v17i2.47375. Journal homepage: https://innovareacademics.in/journals/index.php/ajpcr Review Article *Corresponding author: Hidayath Khan Mehdi; Email: dr.hidayathkhan@gmail.com Received: 2 December 2023, Revised and Accepted: 19 January 2023 Thirty female albino Wistar rats were used in the study. The rats were divided into six groups and three animals were in each group. G1 – Control group, G2 – Negative group, G3 – Standard group, G4 – Low test dose, G5 – Medium test dose group, and G6 – High test dose group. Except control group, all the rats were given propylthiouracil (PTU)-10 mg/kg/day, oral route for 30 days to induce hypothyroidism. The HAEAC used for the study. Toxicity study was done according to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development 423 guidelines for the pilot study. Moreover, then the dose of the test drug was fixed as low dose (200 mg/kg/bw), medium dose (400 mg/kg/bw), and high dose (600 mg/kg/bw). The effect of test drug Waj (HAEAC) in PTU-induced hypothyroidism, in high test dose (600 mg/kg/bw) results, shows the Mean±Standard deviation of T3 is 91.667±2.517 (p<0.001), T4 is 4.700±0.200 (p<0.01), and TSH is 26.033±7.061 (p<0.01). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the efficacy of hydroalcoholic extract of Acorus calamus Linn (HAEAC), in drug-induced hypothyroidism in albino Wistar rats, to prove the scientific integrity, credibility, and reliability of the concepts of the Unani system of medicine in the present era, to manage the disease with safe, low-cost, effective, and easily available drugs in the Unani system of medicine, and to compare the test drug with the standard control drug in the management of hypothyroidism.