Evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of Majoon Suranjan, a Unani formulation, in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: an experimental study.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disorder. Allopathic treatments for RA have various side-effects and limitations. Majoon Suranjan (MS) is a polyherbal Unani formulation used to treat RA. Although it is widely used, evidence-based toxicity and efficacy data are not available. The present study was designed to assess the safety and therapeutic efficacy of MS in experimental animals. Acute (14 days) and long-term (90 days) toxicity studies were carried out at three doses of MS, i.e. 440, 880 and 1760 mg/kg body weight in male and female Wistar rats. Arthritis was induced in male rats by immunization with bovine collagen type II and they were treated with vehicle, methotrexate (0.25 mg/kg body weight, intraperitoneal once weekly) and MS (880 mg/kg body weight, orally, daily) for 20 days. Serum rheumatoid factor, anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody, antinuclear antibody and C-reactive protein (CRP) were estimated. None of the rats exhibited overt toxicity or mortality and MS was found to be safe at the tested doses. No abnormal findings were observed in haematological and biochemical parameters, necropsy and histopathology at therapeutic effective dose. MS significantly inhibited the footpad swelling in arthritic rats while serum autoantibodies and CRP levels were significantly decreased. The present study demonstrates that at therapeutic doses, the Unani medicine, MS is relatively safe. Furthermore, MS was found to be effective in decreasing the biomarkers of RA, thus providing scientific evidence in support of its traditional use in the treatment of RA.