New herbal drug to cure fractures much faster

The sheesham tree that finds its way into almost every home as furniture will now help you heal your bones.

The Central Drug Research Institute on Wednesday launched its newly-developed herbal medicine for bone health. The medicine, based on Indian rosewood or “sheesham”, will be available in the market in March.

Talking about the new drug, CDRI director Dr Madhu Dixit said, “This herbal preparation is made from leaves of “dalbergia sissoo, a large deciduous perennial tree, growing in lowland region throughout India, popularly known as sheesham. This medicine helps us in improving bone health and will also encourage farmers to cultivate this tree for their economic benefits.”

Dr Dixit, the first woman director of CDRI, said that the results of the clinical trials had established the safety and effectiveness of the new drug in healing fractures. Patients who were given this drug reported a much faster healing of fractures than those who opted for the traditional procedures. In fact, the healing time was reduced to almost half in many cases.

The drug is made from the leaves of the sheesham tree which has a high amount of flavonoids that help in healing. Besides, since the leaves are used for making drugs, it will not have an adverse impact on the ecology.

“Very soon, we will begin clinical trials for treating osteoporosis also and if this succeeds, it will be a major breakthrough,” the director said. The clinical trials were also carried out on women who suffered fractures due to osteoporosis and the success rate was amazingly high.

CDRI scientist Naibedya Chattopadhya, who is closely associated with the drug, said, “This is a standardised extract, hence we know the exact amount of active ingredients in it which are required for bone health and which cannot be obtained in optimum dose by consuming fresh leaves.”

A drug company from Gujarat will soon start manufacturing this wonder drug that is expected to enter the market by March.