A Tibetan Herbal Formula Understood from a Phytotherapeutical Perspective of tcm

In this article I aim to describe the Tibetan formula Padma 28 from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine (tcm) phytotherapy as practised in Europe. As a biomedical physician and tcm practitioner, familiar also with traditional Tibetan medicine (ttm), I would like to underline that these two Asian medical systems are on one hand fundamentally different based on culturally distinct concepts and practices of health and illness, including different body images. On the other hand, they can be, and in fact are, correlated with each other in practice via their shared specific materia medica. This article represents a first attempt at establishing an understanding via translation, by relating distinct ttm and tcm efficacies as well as my own personal tasting of the single ingredients of the Tibetan formula Padma 28. tcm terminology translated into English is relatively well established and may provide a lingua franca, other than predominant biomedicine, for communication about Tibetan and Chinese prescriptions, and about individual plants. From a tcm perspective, Padma 28 has an overall neutral or slightly cool temperature effect and an acrid, bitter, and slightly aromatic taste. This formula can be used to promote the movement of qi and blood in a mild way without injuring the yin. Furthermore, it strengthens the spleen qi and spleen yang. Responding to the regulatory context in Europe, certain ingredients in this Tibetan formula have been left out and substituted by others—a practice that is regarded as common in tcm formulations.

In vivo stimulatory effect of multi-component herbal remedy PADMA 28 on mitogen-induced proliferation of mice splenic lymphocytes and their chemokinetic activity

PADMA 28, a natural herbal multi-compound remedy originates from traditional Tibetan medicine and possesses a variety of beneficial effects on experimental and clinical models of inflammation and atherosclerosis, as well as angioprotecive, antioxidative and wound - healing properties. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the in vivo influence of this remedy on the in vitro mitogen- induced proliferation of murine splenic lymphocytes and their chemokinetic activity in cell culture. The study was performed on 6-8 weeks old inbred Balb/c mice. PADMA28 was administered to mice per os in daily doses 5.8 mg (calculated from the highest dose recommended for human) or 0.085 mg (dose from the range of active doses of other herbal extracts containing polyphenolic substances used previously by us in experiments with mice), for 7 days. Control groups received water. Results: No substantial differences were observed between groups of mice fed with low and high PADMA doses. In both of them, response of splenic lymphocztes to mitogen PHA (p < 0.001) and their in vitro chemokinetic activity (p < 0.001 for low dose and p < 0.01 for high dose) were highly significantly increased as compared to the controls. Conclusion: The results of our investigations suggest that PADMA 28 can stimulate cell-mediated immunity in mice and might be used for this purpose in the wide spectrum of doses.