Thiruvananthapuram: Ayurvedic Medicine Approved for COVID-19 Clinical Trial

An Ayurvedic medicine developed by Pankajakasthuri Herbal Research Foundation in Kerala has been approved for a clinical trial on COVID-19 patients by the Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI).

"Zingivir-H tablet, which is effective against respiratory infections, viral fever, acute viral bronchitis, has been found to be effective against the Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Influenza virus during scientific validation. In vitro experiments done at the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology have proven that there are no side effects in the human cell," Dr. J Hareendran Nair, Founder, Pankajakasthuri Herbal Research Foundation told ANI.

He said that after the study he approached medical colleges in various states:

• Tamil Nadu
• Karnataka
• Maharashtra
• Telangana
• Delhi

"I approached medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Delhi and some of them accepted my request and got institutional medical committee approval. After that I approached CTRI for the approval and then the clinical trial started," he said.

"ZingiVir-H has seven ingredients including herbomineral and these have been prescribed in our scientific manuscript. It has been part of our clinical practice for so many years. I have been using this formula for nearly 15 years for viral fever, acute viral bronchitis and contagious fever and have got fantastic results," Nair added.

The approval was received from the Institutional Ethics Committees (IEC) based on which the Central Government's CTRI (Clinical Trial Registry of India, which comes under the ICMR) has provided registration to conduct a randomised single-blinded placebo-controlled prospective multicenter interventional clinical trial to various medical colleges across the country, he said.

"We are expecting results by the end of May. I am not sure about the result. If the results are positive, then it would be the success of Ayurveda and if not then it will be my failure," Nair said.

He said that clinical trial will be on 120 patients. 15 patients have already been administered as part of the trial.

"Our aim is to conduct a trial on 120 patients and the trial has already been done on 15 people in Mysore Medical College," Nair said.

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