Medicinal Properties of Aragvadha (Cassia fistula Linn.)

Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine, practiced since a long time for leading a disease free life. It relies mainly upon the medicinal plants for the management of various ailments. Aragvadha (Cassia fistula Linn.) is a plant drug which is being used in the medicines in Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha systems of medicine since ages. It has good ornamental and medicinal value. It is mentioned to be useful in the diseases like fever, skin disorders, rheumatic disorders etc and acts as anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic etc. The pharmacological potential of Cassia fistula Linn is enumerated with the modern day researches.


Introduction:
Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine, practiced since a long time for leading a disease free life. It relies mainly upon the medicinal plants for the management of various ailments. There are a wide range of the medicinal plants described in Ayurveda. Some of these plants are extinct and some are still unidentified. A few plants are still used as the richest source of medicines since the ages. Aragvadha (Cassia fistula Linn.) is one such plant drug which is being used in the medicines in Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha systems of medicine since ages. These plants are often cultivated for its beautiful flowers in the gardens. Apart from the ornamental value this drug proves to be one of the plants having good medicinal value.
In this regard medicinal properties of Aragvadha (Cassia fistula Linn.) are being explored to enumerate the pharmacological potential of the drug.

Traditional medicinal uses: (2)
In Ayurvedic classics it is mentioned that Aragvadha is sweet and bitter in taste, heavy, cooling and sweet in vipaka. It is useful to reduce various diseases like Fever (Jwara), Skin Diseases The fruit of it is said to be Laxative (Sramsanam), increases taste perception (Ruchya), reduces skin disorders (Kushta), pitha and kapha. This is said to be the best drug for laxation during fevers. And it is also said to be the best for the elimination of doshas of the gastrointestinal tract (kostashuddikaram param).

Phytochemistry: (4) Root bark:
An important chemical called fistucacidin, a hydroxy athraquinone type compound and its antibacterial effect was reported from the root bark.
N-Butanol extract of the powdered stem bark contained tannins.
They also contained kaempferol glycosides.

Flowers:
Other compounds isolated were: sitosterol, n-triancontanol, leucopelargonidin and a mixture of flavonoids and glucosides. Ceryl alcohol, kaempferol, rhein and new bianthraquinone glycosides, fistulin isolated from the ethanol extract of the flowers.

Pods:
An anthraquinone fistulic acid is obtained from the alcoholic extract.

Pharmacological Actions: Anti-Inflammatory:
Dried fruits of Cassia fistula L. showed anti-inflammatory activity at 500 mg/ kg dose. 1:1 combination of the dried fruit extracts of Solanum xanthocarpum and Cassia fistula showed synergetic action at 500 mg/kg showed maximum inhibition of 75% compared to the 81% inhibition in diclofenac sodium treated positive control group. (5) The aqueous extract of the leaves, stem bark, root bark and fruit pulp in a dose of lgm/100 gm body weight produced significant anti-inflammatory effect on albino rats.
The acqueous extract of the fruit caused an inhibitory effect on the isolated hearts of the frogs and rabbits. At a dose of 80mg and above, it exhibited stimulant effect on the smooth muscle of rabbit duodenum and guinea pig ileurn in vitro. The extract had a relaxant effect on the dog's intestine in vitro. On isolated rat uterus, the extract had slight stimulant action in dose 25mg-1 gm (LillyKutty 1965).

Antipyretic and Analgesic activity:
It has been found to possess significant antipyretic and analgesic properties (Patel et.al. 1965).

Antibacterial Activity: (6)
The leaves stem bark and fruit pulp was found to have antibacterial activity, the fruit pulp being the most potent in this respect. Maximum activity is seen against S. aureus, S. albus, B. megathenin, S. flexueri, S. typhui A & B and 1 gm of this extract was more potent than 100 gm of chloramphenical in vitro. This activity was attributed to the presence of rhein.

Anti-Fungal Activity:
The acetone extracts of the root bark and stem bark had anti-fungal activity against T. rubrum and T.megnini. The root bark had the maximum activity 100mg of it being more potent than 16.tgm of griseofulvin in vitro. The activity might be due to the presence of flavonoids (LillyKutty and Santhakumari 1969).

Antiviral Activity:
The alcoholic extracts of the pods and stem bark were found to have antiviral activity.
They also possessed hypoglycaemia activity in albino rats.

Skin Diseases:
The efficacy of the Cassia fistula in skin diseases may be attributed to the presence of anthraquinone derivatives specially chrysopherol.
Pretreatment with C. fistula showed antioxidant and hepatoprotective properties against CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity. (14) Anti-ulcer activity: The ethanol leaf extract (ELE) of Cassia fistula Linn. (Caesalpinaceae) showed antiulcer activity could be attributed to a decrease in gastric acid secretion, protection of the mucosal barrier and restoration of mucosal secretions, inhibition of free radical generation or prevention of lipid peroxidation, and free radical scavenging or antioxidant properties. (15) Hypoglycemic activity: Catechin isolated from Cassia fistula possesses hypo-glycemic, Glucose oxidizing and insulin mimetic activities and hence it could be used as a drug for treating diabetes.(16)

Anti-fertility:
Cassia fistula reversibly suppresses fertility in male rats. Withdrawal of extract restored all the altered parameters, including organ weights, fertility, circulatory level of hormones and tissue biochemistry, to control levels after 120 days (17).
Oral administration of aqueous extract of seeds of Cassia fistula to mated female rats from day 1-5 of pregnancy at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight resulted in 57.14% and 71.43% prevention of pregnancy, respectively, whereas 100% pregnancy inhibition was noted at 500 mg/kg bw (23)

Wound healing property:
Along with the other activities such as antitumor, antioxidant, hypoglycemic, hepatoprotective, antibacterial, hypocholesterolaemic, and antidiabetic activity, the healing potential of C. fistula provides a scientific rationale for the traditional use of this plant in the management of infected dermal wound and can be further investigated as a substitute to treat infected wounds without using synthetic antibiotics. (20) Antioxidative activity: Aqueous extract of Cassia fistula (Linn.) flowers (ACF) has got promising antioxidative activity in alloxan diabetic rats (21).

Conclusion:
From the above it can be concluded that the drug Aragvadha (Cassia fistula Linn.) proved to have extensive medicinal value in the treatment of diseases like fever, skin disorders, abdominal disorders etc.
Thus it can be concluded that the drug if explored can become a single drug remedy for many pathological conditions in a cost effective and easily available way.