Biochemical Characterization of Triphala Extracts for Developing Potential Herbal Drug Formulation for Ocular Diseases

In recent years, multiple drug resistance has been developed due to indiscriminate use of existing drugs in the treatment of infectious diseases. The major thrust is to establish alternative antimicrobial agent in order to treat microbial infections with less or no toxicity and less or negligible side effects. The herbal medicines have shown potential to overcome the limitation associated with conventional drugs. One such herbal drug is triphala (formula consists of three myrobalans) that possesses potential pharmaceutical activities and used in several ayurvedic formulations. The present work focused on study of triphala in ophthalmic disorder management; to reduce growth of microorganisms, minimizing the risk of infection, while optimizing the conditions to encourage healing. In our study we found, ethyl acetate and acetone extracts of triphala have better bactericidal and antioxidant property than methanolic extract. Furthermore, cytotoxic effect of triphala was checked on monolayer corneal cells (SIRC). The cells were found to be metabolically active in presence of triphala extract with negligible cytotoxicty. The cell morphology and cell viability was evaluated by staining the cell nuclei using DAPI and Hoechst stain respectively. These results suggested the safety and efficacy of these extract in formulation of the new drug. These findings may provide scientific rationale for the use of triphala as a new drug compound for preparation of eye drops, also as potential antioxidant and antimicrobial agent.