Experimental and Clinical Studies on Anti-Tricomonas Effect of Coptis Japonica

Abstract

Coptis japonica is a crude drug with berberine as its main effective. It is well known that berberine is effective against bacteria-and protozoa-diseases such as leishmania, amoeba and malaria. The purpose of this study was to determine the anti-trichomonas effect of this drug. A. Experimental Studies : 1) Studies of berberine, coptis japonica and other crude berberine containing drugs on trichomonas vaginalis in vitro. 2) Inhibiting effects of coptis japonica, the several extracts of this drug and berberine hydrochloride on the intraperitoneally infected trichomonas in mice. 3) The change of dyeing potency of toluidine blue on trichomonas vaginalis, injured, by coptis japonica. B. Clinical Study : The effect of coptis japonica was tested in 39 cases with trichomonas vaginalis. The microskopic investigation of parasites, improvement of subjective symptoms and continuous cure rates were reported by the intravaginal administration of powdered coptis japonica.Results : 1) The minimum inhibitory concentration in vitro were 250 to 500γ/cc for berberine, 500 to 2,000γ/cc for coptis japonica, 4,000γ/cc for phellodendron amureuse (yellow bark) and 2,000 to 4,000γ/cc for berberis thunbergii. 2) The LD₅₀ of coptis japonica, tested by intraperitoneal injection in mice was 880mg/kg. The. intraperitoneally injected berberine has no action on trichomonas. The suspension of the drug was most effective. The filtrate of the suspension and other variously treated forms showed a decrease in the effectiveness. 3) The trichomonas, treated by this drug has beed dyed by the toluidine blue, which dyes only several kinds of cells, poisoned by drug actions. 4) In 39 cases of trichomonas vaginalis, the percentage of the primary complete healing was 94.87%. The trichomonas could not be found by the microscopic investigation generally after 2 repeated treatments. 11 cases among 18 patients showed the continuous healing. (i.e. 61.1%) Conclusion : From the experiments and clinical studies it is concluded that coptis japonica is effective against trichomonas vaginalis.