ABSTRACT:
Background: Herbalism has a long tradition of use outside of conventional medicine even before recorded history. It is becoming more mainstream as improvements in analysis and quality control along with advances in clinical research show the value of herbal medicine in the treating and preventing inflammatory and other diseases. This focuses the attention on the possibility of the presence of anti-allergic compounds in the extracts of some plants that may help control common allergic diseases including asthma.
OBJECTIVES:
To test the possible anti-allergic activity of the aqueous extract of wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum L.) on ovalbumin-induced asthma clinical picture in Syrian hamster models.
METHODS:
The antigen-induced asthmatic response and subsequent airways reactivity have been associated with increased airways inflammation. Employing animal models of ovalbumin-induced asthma in Syrian hamsters previously developed in our laboratory, 3 phases of experiment (sensitization, challenging and treatment) were performed to investigate the effect of the aqueous extract of Thymus serpyllum on asthma clinical manifestations and white blood cell count and differential.
RESULTS:
Control groups showed no clinical manifestations during three phases while histamine and ovalbumin induced asthmatic groups showed clinical symptoms of asthma during second phase and improvement
