Image: wikipedia.org
Lagundi cough medicine has been proven to be safe even for children. It has also been found that taking the medicine produces no allergic reactions or side effects as compared to popular cough medicine like Robitussin, which is known to cause dizziness, nausea, headaches, and nervousness. Rare side effects of Robitussin also include mental/mood changes, shaking, and weakness.
The budget-friendly price tag is also one of the main advantages of lagundi cough medicine.Traditional preparation of lagundi as an herbal medicine also makes it very accessible, especially in areas where it grows abundantly.
The Development of Lagundi Cough Medicine
Lagundi (vitex negundo) is a native shrub in the Philippines that has been used as herbal medicine for a very long time. The use of the plant for medicinal purposes in the country was even observed by a Spanish Jesuit priest in a book that was published in 1900.The priest noted how the plant’s leaves were used to treat headaches and ulcers, while its flowers were used to treat dysentery and rheumatism.
The World Intellectual Property Organization has a lot of information about the development of lagundi as a commercial cough medicine. In the 1970s, the National Integrated Research Program on Medicinal Plants (NIRPROMP) was established by the University of the Philippines-Manila and other universities, under the guidance of the Department of Science and Technology.
One of the goals of NIRPROMP was to propagate the use of herbs with proven medicinal value. In 1995, it started to look into lagundi’s medicinal properties. The institution worked to develop a cough and asthma medicine based on lagundi, in tablet and syrup form.
NIRPROMP found through tests that active ingredients in lagundi were able to relax the air passages of the lungs, and acted as anti-histamine, anti-inflammatory, and anti-asthmatic. Clinical trials held in the late 1980s found that patients who suffered from coughs had substantial positive results without adverse reactions or side effects.
Herbafarm was the first company to license the use of lagundi tablets as a cough medicine, following efforts by the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development to commercialise lagundi-based medicine after the findings by NIRPROMP proved positive. Pascual Laboratories was another licensee of the technology and the company is now one of the largest sellers of lagundi cough medicine, under its ASCOF Lagundi brand.
Commercial Success of Lagundi Cough Medicine
The commercialisation of lagundi cough medicine has been a boon to everyone involved in tapping the medicinal properties of the plant. NIRPROMP’s efforts to promote the use of herbal medicine has borne fruit and helped Filipino pharmaceutical companies bring the drug to market.
Marketed as a healthier and cheaper alternative to synthetic cough syrups, the path to the commercial success of lagundi cough medicine can hopefully be replicated by other herbal medicines. The current popularity of lagundi cough medicine has shown how it is possible to develop and introduce organic medicine for the consumption and ultimate benefit of a bigger population, thus reducing the population’s health insurance and medical expenses.
There’s much more room to grow, but lagundi cough medicine is already gaining a larger share of the local market. It’s not impossible to imagine the remedy being made available to overseas markets in the future. There’s a lot to be gained too, economically speaking, as the cough and cold medicine manufacturing industry’s revenue has been estimated to have an average annual rate of 1.2% to $2.3 billion from 2007 to 2012, according to IBISWorld.
Great article!
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