EFFECTIVENESS OF HERBAL COMBINATION OF IVY, THYME AND CISTI EXTRACTS IN MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE COUGH IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of herbal combination of Ivy, Thyme and Cisti extracts in management of acute cough in children and adults. METHODS: An open label study was conducted to assess the efficacy of herbal combination of Ivy, Thyme and Cisti extracts in relieving acute cough. It was conducted from 1st December 2017 till 28th February 2018 in Children’s Hospital and Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore and Saifee Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. It was completed by 157 participants of age 2-75 years who reported their cough frequency, severity, and bothersomeness score on a Likert scale of 0 (not at all) to 6 (extremely). Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS v.21. RESULTS: There were 53.5% males and 46.5% females with mean age of 20.1±19.1 years. The most common clinical features with cough were sputum (70%) and fever (70%). The age group 2-12 years included 53.5% patients who showed significant improvement in frequency (from 4.33±1.13 to 0.69±0.97 in night time and 3.98±1.00 to 0.58±0.88 in daytime), severity (from 4.19±0.99 to 0.65±0.91 in night time and 3.99±1.13 to 0.44±0.84 in daytime), and bothersomeness (from 4.04±1.08 to 0.46±0.83 in night time and 3.86±1.15 to 0.48±0.85 in daytime) with three days of therapy with of Ivy, Thyme and Cisti extracts syrup. No side effect was reported with three days of therapy. CONCLUSION: Our study concluded that herbal combination of Ivy, Thyme, and Cisti extracts is an efficacious natural cough suppressant in terms of frequency, severity and bothersomeness of cough.