Juma Abdullah bin Habeeballah bin Abdullah
Department of Orthopaedics, Faculty of Medicine, King AbdulAziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
MedGenMed. 2007 Apr 30;9(2):23.
The Lepidium sativum plant and seeds are well known in the community of Saudi Arabia and some other Arabic countries as a good mediator for fracture healing in the human skeleton. However, there is no scientific proof for this phenomenon, except for the positive observation noted publicly by traditional medicine practitioners and people in the community as well as clinically by the author. Those healed fractures in human beings observed clinically due to the consumption of L sativum seeds propagated the attention of the author to carry out this study, with the goal of proving it in the laboratory by inducing fractures in the midshaft of the left femur of 6 adult New Zealand White rabbits divided into 2 groups (control, n = 3 and test, n = 3). The test rabbits were fed soon after surgery with L sativum seeds mixed with their normal diet, whereas no seeds were given to the control group. X-rays of the induced fractures were taken at 6 and 12 weeks postoperatively to assess the healing of the fractures and documenting the healing by direct measurements of callus formation in millimeters at the longitudinal medial (LM) and longitudinal lateral (LL) and circumferential (CM) areas. The test group had a statistically significant increase in the healing of fractures compared with the control group (P < .001 for CM/6 weeks and P < .004 for CM and P < .043 for LM/12 weeks). We concluded that L sativum seeds had a marked influence on fracture healing in rabbits, clearly supporting their effects on human beings as a well-known natural element to promote fracture healing in traditional medicine. This, of course, has a marked clinical implication that needs to be investigated further.
独行菜植株和种子在沙特阿拉伯及其他一些阿拉伯国家的群体中，作为人类骨骼骨折愈合的良好介质而广为人知。然而，除了传统医学从业者和社区民众公开的积极观察以及作者的临床观察外，这一现象尚无科学依据。临床上观察到人类因食用独行菜种子而愈合的骨折，引发了作者开展此项研究的关注，目的是通过对6只成年新西兰白兔的左股骨中段造成骨折并分为2组（对照组，n = 3；试验组，n = 3），在实验室中对此进行验证。试验组兔子在术后立即喂食混有正常饮食的独行菜种子，而对照组不给予种子。术后6周和12周对诱发骨折部位进行X线检查，以评估骨折愈合情况，并通过直接测量纵向内侧（LM）、纵向外侧（LL）和圆周（CM）区域以毫米为单位的骨痂形成情况来记录愈合过程。与对照组相比，试验组骨折愈合情况有统计学意义的增加（CM/6周时P <.001，CM时P <.004，LM/12周时P <.043）。我们得出结论，独行菜种子对兔子的骨折愈合有显著影响，明确支持了其在传统医学中作为促进骨折愈合的知名天然元素对人类的作用。当然，这具有显著的临床意义，需要进一步研究。
