ANALYTICAL STUDY OF HERBAL FUMIGATION

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There are 100 trillion of microbes in human body and millions of microbes around us in air clothes etc. A sterile environment is the necessity of every surgical procedure and sterilization of the Operation theatre, surgical instruments etc is compulsorily carried out before any surgical procedure by various methods like chemical disinfection, fumigation etc to avoid the nosocomial infections, surgical site infections, post-operative complications etc. AIM: Fumigation of the Operation theatre is the first step and an inseparable part of any surgical procedure. In contemporary science various methods of sterilization are employed to sterilize major and minor operation theaters, dressing materials, different surgical equipments. Ayurvedic classics have explained sterilization under the concept of Dhupana, Shastrapayana etc. Dhupana is the method by which drugs of herbal, herbo-mineral or animal origin are used for fumigation. The current study was done to evaluate the anti-microbial property & to re-establish the Sushrutokta Dhupana Yoga. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A single group analytical study was done to evaluate anti-microbial property of Sushrutokta Dhupana Yoga in the form of Varthi. 15 trials were done with 4 swab samples each before fumigation and after fumigation and total 60 swab samples were assessed. The assessment was done based on pre and post microbial load observed from swab culture & sensitivity test of the collected swabs. RESULTS: The micro-organisms detected in the swab culture test were Gram positive Staphylococci, Gram negative bacilli, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Fumigation with Sushrutokta Dhupana Yoga was found to have both bacteriostatic and bactericidal properties and showed positive results with p value of 0.001 which is highly significant. CONCLUSION: Dhupana or Herbal fumigation with Sushrutoktha Dhupana Yoga was found to be effective against a varied range of micro-organisms and an efficient method of sterilization.