Proposal of employ of extract of Desmodium adscendens as anti-histaminic natural drug: trials of efficacy by Reflectance Spectrophotometry

Abstract

Introduction: Aim of our study is to propose the ancient plant Desmodium adscendens, that is hitherto known for combating, when orally administered, a plethora of other ailments and diseases and considered even an anti-histaminic, for external use. An inhibition of histamine depot by inhibiting the enzymatic activity of histidine decarboxylase can be suspected, since biological principles contained in D.A. belong to the same pharmacological class of natural derivatives that elicit the same effects (nicotinic acid, cyanides and quercetine) and of synthetic alkylammines (e.g contained in bubble baths). Desmodium adscendens is a perennial plant, growing wild in Africa, especially in Camerun and Ivory Coast as well as in South and Central America and the continent of Asia. Aborigines were accustomed to employ the entire plant for rites of initiation and other shamanistic ceremonies. Notwithstanding, it has been used for thousands of years by peoples native to those areas where it grows for a variety of health issues. This plant has been studied in France, Italy, India and Canada and appreciable are the results with regard to bronchial dilation, relaxation of smooth muscles, antihistamine effects, when orally administered, albeit there is a neat evidence of an extreme paucity of references about its ability to act as a completely natural anti-histaminic herb for external use. Material and Methods: To conduct our study we have recruited 24 volunteers out from 4 cathegories of employees generally suffering from Type I Contact Dermatities. They were prayed to spread the hydroglyceric extract of Desmodium adscendens every morning at 10.00 a.m. and every afternoon at 03.00 p.m onto the skin of forearms and cheeks, where an artificial rash was evoked by the use of a mix made up with allergenic herbs. As far as the evaluation of the degree of severity of skin inflammation is concerned we have used the Reflectance Spectrophotoscopy, to measure the erythematous manifestation twice a day for one week: at 09.00 a.m. (to check the gravity of erythema induced in each single case) and at 04.30 p.m., to check the real efficacy of the D.A. hydroglyceric extract. We have to keep seriously on account that Reflectance Spectrophotoscopy can't evaluate histamine concentration and its characteristic effects and that the 40-50% of cases of erythematous manifestations are not rigorously ascribable to the phenomenon of the histamine release. Results and Conclusions: Results are amazingly encouraging, since it has been observed that the mean value of the blanching effect of the electuary on erythema is of 48.8%.