EFFECTIVENESS OF HERBAL COMBINATION OF IVY, THYME AND CISTI EXTRACTS IN MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE COUGH IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy of herbal combination of Ivy, Thyme, and Cisti extracts in management of acute cough in children and adults. METHODS: An open label study was conducted to assess the efficacy of herbal combination of Ivy, Thyme and Cisti extracts in relieving acute cough. It was st th conducted from 1 December 2017 till 28 February 2018 in Children's Hospital and Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore and Saifee Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. It was completed by 157 participants of age 2-75 years who reported their cough frequency, severity, and bothersomeness score on a Likert scale of 0 (not at all) to 6 (extremely). Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS v.21. RESULTS: There were 53.5% males and 46.5% females with mean age of 20.1±19.1 years. The most common clinical features with cough were sputum (70%) and fever (70%). The age group 2-12 years included 53.5% patients who showed significant improvement in frequency (from 4.33±1.13 to 0.69±0.97 in night time and 3.98±1.00 to 0.58±0.88 in daytime), severity (from 4.19±0.99 to 0.65±0.91 in night time and 3.99±1.13 to 0.44±0.84 in daytime), and bothersomeness (from 4.04±1.08 to 0.46±0.83 in night time and 3.86±1.15 to 0.48±0.85 in daytime) with three days of therapy with of Ivy, Thyme and Cisti extracts syrup. No side effect was reported with three days of therapy. CONCLUSION: Our study concluded that herbal combination of Ivy, Thyme, and Cisti extracts is an efficacious natural cough suppressant in terms of frequency, severity and bothersomeness of cough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]