Therapeutic failure has been defined as a failure to accomplish the goals of treatment resulting from inadequate or inappropriate drug therapy and not related to the natural progression of disease. A lack of therapeutic effect from inadequate drug therapy may include noncompliance, recent dose reduction or discontinuation, drug–drug interaction, too low a dose of drug prescribed, and inadequate therapeutic drug monitoring. Drug therapeutic failures are responsible for increasing disease length, hospitalization time and costs, resulting in worsening of patient productivity.
The drug
therapeutic failure is a very serious problem all over the world
including Pakistan. It causes heavy production losses in animals. To cover the therapeutic
failure, some strategic measures like the development of the new drugs as well
as the herbal medicine should be introduced. Poor
farmers in developing countries world-wide very often do not have access to
vets or cannot afford veterinary drugs to treat their animals. This is
resulting in high mortality, reduced productivity and economic losses as high
as 50% of the value of their animals. For many generations, small-holder
farmers and traditional healers in Pakistan have used medicinal plants to try
to cure their animals. Plants have the ability to synthesize a wide variety of
chemical compounds that are used to perform important biological functions.
Chemical compounds in plants mediate their
effects on the human and animal body through processes identical to those
already well understood for the chemical compounds in conventional drugs; thus
herbal medicines do not differ greatly from conventional drugs in terms of how
they work. Herbal medications have the advantage of providing more than
one type of ingredients at a time. These ingredients may intensify or
antagonize the effect of the previous ingredients. Herbal medicines have some
other advantages also. They are the chief source of medications. These are
easily available to the common man and abundant in nature. So, indigenous
medicinal plants may be good alternative to the medicines which are resistant
to various diseases.
One of the plants which may be used as an indigenous
medicinal plant is the Aak. In different languages it has different names. It
is called Madar tree in English, Aakado in Gujrati, Ak in Punjabi, Madar and
Aak in Urdu and Acka in Kashmiri. Aak belongs to the kingdom plantae,
family Asclepiadaceae, order Gentianales, genus Calotropis and specie C. procera. The plant grows on the arid
and semi-arid zone of the country. The height of this plant may be reached up
to 2-3 meters. The flowers of the plant are purple spotted. Growing as a spreading shrub or a
small tree, Sodom's apple milkweed (Calotropis procera)
has simple stems with only a few branches, which are light grey-green in colour
and covered in a fissured, corky barkThe fruit are boat shaped and very
soft at the inner side. The stems, roots, leaves, flowers, barks and latex of
this plant are used for different conditions. Scientist reported that parts of
the plant above than the soil show the properties of cardiac glycosides,
sterols, alkaloids, flavonoides and triterpenes. The various uses of the Aak
are as follows.
The dry milk of Aak is used as an antidiarreheal
agent. It is a good curative agent for the diarrhea. It desensitizes the
gastric smooth muscle cells and highly reduces the defecation frequency. It
decreases both the severity of diarrhea as well as the defecation rate. The
advantage of Aak in diarrhea is that it causes to cure diarrehea but no
electrolyte imbalance in the body. The dried milk of the Aak has the anticoccidial
property. Aak reduces the oocyte shedding of the coccidia in feces. As an anti-coccidial
agent, it helps in the normal activities of the animals, their normal appetite,
regular pelleted feces and lower schizonts in the cells. The Aak also has the
antithelerial property. It reduces the signs and symptoms of the thelerial
infection in the cross bred cattle. The lymphnode swelling and temperature were
highly reduced when used for thelirea. The Aak leaves extract has the property
to kill the larvae of the mosquitoes. It is a strong larvicidal agent in
marshes area. It has the property of killing the adult mosquito and also to
destroy its eggs. The dry milk of the Aak has the anticancer property against
tumors. It reduces the tumor growth. In one patient it increased the life span up
to 4 days. It has the heat resistant protein which causes the growth inhibition
of the tumor. The dry milk protein of the Aak also has the property of
anticonvulsant agent. The Aak may be used in the treatment of those diseases
and toxicities which causes hyperexcitement and increase in tonicity. The dry milk protein of the Aak may also be
used to induce the sleep (sedative agent). So it may be used as a preanesthetic
agent in the surgeries. The Aak is also used for the treatment of blood
parasites as an anti-trypniosomal agent. In field condition Aak is also used as an
anthelmintic agent. The plant has the strong anthelmintic property. It decreases
the fecal eggs burden in the feces of the animals. It increases the weight
gain, wool production, hide production, milk production and the reproductive
performances. Aak has also the property of the hepatoprotectant agent in the
Carbon tetrachloride induced liver toxicity. In conventional remedies it is
used for the treatment of arthritis, by keeping it under the sole in the shoes.
Aak may also be used as an expectorant agent to do the lysis of the sputum in
the Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Aak is also used for the treatment
of constipation as a purgative and laxative agent. Aak has also been used as a diuretic
agent in the renal failure. Aak may also be used to decrease the pain intensity
by acting as an Analgesic and antipyretic agent. Aak may also be used as an
antimalarial agent. Methanolic extract of the Aak have the property of
Oestogenic action and inhibit the blastocyst implantation.
WheRe can I get this plant
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