Abstract
CONTEXT: Nutritional iron deficiency is the most common cause of anemia in India. The nearest correlation of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) can be made with Pandu Roga in Ayurveda. As the IDA is a very common prevalent disease in the society and the side effects of oral allopathic iron preparations are very common, therefore to get a better alternative, an Ayurvedic herbomineral medicine, the Trikatrayadi Lauha, was subjected to a clinical trial in children suffering from IDA. AIM: Evaluation of safety and efficacy of the compound Trikatrayadi Lauha suspension in children with IDA. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled clinical study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted on 123 children of IDA for a period of 10 weeks. Clinical features and hematological parameters were documented before, during and after treatment. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Observations of the study were analyzed and findings were evaluated by using statistical methods (Student's t test) RESULTS: The present study shows that the trial drug Trikatrayadi Lauha suspension is effective to improve clinical features and hematological parameters significantly. The medicine is effective to increase the hemoglobin level 1.94 g/dL (8.52 -10.46 g/dL, P < 0.001) in 5 weeks and 3.33g/dL (8.52 -11.85g/dL, P < 0.001) in 10 weeks. No adverse effect of the trial drug was observed during the study. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that Trikatrayadi Lauha is significantly effective in the management of IDA in children.