腎臓学と治療学ジャーナル

An Appraisal of Nephroprotection and the Scope of Natural Products in Combating Renal Disorders

Abstract

Qazi Zaid Ahmad *,Nasreen Jahan ,Ghufran Ahmad ,Tajuddin

Although the concept of nephroprotection is relatively new but evidences are accumulating to demonstrate that the drugs described to be useful in various renal disorders because of their nephroprotective and nephrotonic effect as described in Unani or other traditional medicines, have diverse therapeutic uses and can be used to manage many renal diseases and their complications or at least to arrest their progression. The traditional systems of medicines would offer some novel drugs, which may be effective in different pathological conditions of the kidney. The drugs of traditional systems of medicines are frequently used to protect the renal function and to delay the progression of renal diseases to CKD and ESRD. In recent past it has been shown that a number of drugs from herbal medicine possess promising nephroprotective effect. The researchers are keen to develop an effective, safe and low cost drug from alternative medicine. However, the drugs identified to be effective in renal diseases on the basis of age-old practices of traditional medicines and few scientific studies need to be evaluated for their pharmacological profile and wide therapeutic potential. This paper gives a detailed account of the traditional drugs useful in renal diseases and the scientific studies conducted so far to validate them.