Improved treatment of Asthma by using natural sources of antioxidants

Asthma is a clinical syndrome that highly possible involves both airways inflammation with an oxidant/antioxidant imbalance, providing that reactive oxygen species (ROS) can lead to lung injury as a result of direct oxidative damage to epithelial cells and cells shedding, therefore the effectiveness of supplying regularly natural antioxidants has thoroughly been studied in management and or treatment of asthma. In this study, a kind of 500mg pill was prepared and named as BRONAS, and described as below: - BRONAS was prepared from 200mg of dried extract powder of Hippocampus kuda, 200 mg of dried extract powder of Rhizoma Homalomenae 130 mg of honey, and then used hands to roll pills of around 500 mg each. BRONAS is a combination bioactive antioxidant compounds that exhibits antioxidant activity in linoleic acid system, effective reducing power, DPPH radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, superoxide radical scavenging, alkyl radical scavenging and inhibitory intracellular ROS (originated from the extract of Hippocampus kuda) together with presence of phenolics such as protocatechuic acid, vanillic acid, syringic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and apigenin (originated from the extract of Rhizoma Homalomena). Phenolic acids are the main phenols consumed by humans. These mentioned six phenolics are all prominent and naturally occurring, and all of them individually possess potent antioxidant activity(Rebecca J. Robbins, 2003; Natella, Nardini, Felice and Scaccini, 1999). The honey was intentionally used with the dried extract powder of Rhizoma Homalomenae and the extract powder of Hippocampus kuda since it has been scientifically considered as an antimicrobial agent and chelating in traditional medicine. In addition, there is a great variety of minor components, including phenolic acids and flavonoids, the enzymes glucose oxidase and catalase, ascorbic acid, carotenoids, organic acids, amino acids, proteins, and a-tocopherol (Kesic, Mazolovic, Crnkic, Catovic, Hadzidedic and Dragosevic, 2009). Fifty two patients with asthma aged 12 – 65 years (24 Male :28 Female, forced expiratory volume in 1 s <60% predicted, Peek Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) <5%, Maximal Mid-expiratory Flow Rate (MMEFR)< 55%, and FEV1 to FVC <70%) taking BRONAS with a single dose of 1200 mg/kg daily for 49 days (BRONAS is a combined composition of natural antioxidants such as DPPH radical scavenging, hydroxyl radical scavenging, superoxide radical scavenging, alkyl radical scavenging and inhibitory intracellular ROS, phenolic acids and flavonoids of which, are commonly found in seahorse of Hippocampus kuda species; in medicinal plant of Rhizoma Homalomena species, and in honey). BRONAS was in the form of pill which was prepared from dried extract powder of Hippocampus kuda and dried extract powder of Hippocampus kuda (with a ratio of 1: 1 w/w) in presence of sufficient honey used as an antimicrobial and chelating agent. Similar to the classical treatment of asthma, sets of pulmonary functions test were monthly conducted for checking the reduction of asthmatic incidence, if any.