Pediatric Liver Diseases and its Management by Herbals: A Traditional Siddha Medicine Treatise

Siddha medicine is one of the oldest (5000 years old, pre vedic period) well-documented Indian traditional medicines, compared to Ayurveda, Unani, and traditional Chinese medicine, by way of keen observation and experimentation. It mentions 108 diseases that occur in childhood, which are further classified and described into various subtypes based on the clinical features and different stages of a particular disease. The objective of this review was to collect literature details on pediatric liver diseases and its management as per Siddha medicine. We have referred all the published Siddha books related to the pediatric practice. There were 37 Siddha literature deals pediatric diseases and they use the term kaamaalai or chenkamaari to describe the liver diseases. Most of the literature classifies liver disease into 3 types, but few texts describe 5-6 subtypes. Thus, a total of 9 subtypes of liver diseases in pediatric age group have been described in Siddha literature with a list of herbals to be used for each type. Mostly, the drug therapy is polyhedral formulations of internal and/or external application. A total of 113 herbals, 6 animal products (including black chicken liver, dairy products, donkey’s dung, honey) and 7 mineral based products (including iron, rock salt) were listed as potential agents to treat liver diseases. The safety and efficacy of all the above mentioned herbal/mineral products have not been fully explored in children, but may be a great potential for clinical development.