Pergularia by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Pergularia daemia (Asclepiadaceae) is a perennial herb growing widely along the road sides of India. It has been used in folk medicine for the treatment of liver disorders.

Pegularia Research
Hepatoprotective effect of extracts from Pergularia daemia Forsk.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2006 Apr 4; Pharmacy Department, Kalabhavan, The M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
The aim of this work is to study the hepatoprotective effect of crude ethanolic and aqueous extracts from the aerial parts of Pergularia daemia. The aqueous and ethanolic extracts obtained from aerial parts of Pergularia daemia were evaluated for hepatoprotective activity in rats by inducing liver damage by carbon tetrachloride. The ethanolic extract at an oral dose of 200mg/kg exhibited a significant protective effect by lowering serum levels of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, glutamic pyruvic transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, total bilirubin and total cholesterol and increasing the levels of total protein and albumin levels as compared to silymarin used as a positive control. These biochemical observations were supplemented by histopathological examination of liver sections. The activity may be a result of the presence of flavonoid compounds. Furthermore, the acute toxicity of the extracts showed no signs of toxicity up to a dose level of 2000mg/kg. Thus it could be concluded that ethanolic extract of Pergularia daemia possesses significant hepatoprotective properties.

Ethnomedicine of Dharwad district in Karnataka, India--plants used in oral health care.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2004 Oct;94(2-3):261-6. PG Department of Botany, Karnatak University, Dharwad 5800 03, Karnataka, India.
The present ethnomedicine survey covers the Dharwad district of Karnataka in southern India. It was revealed that 35 plants belonging to 26 families are being used to treat different types of oral ailments like toothache, plaque and caries, pyorrhea and aphthae. Sixteen of these plants were new claims for the treatment of oral ailments not previously reported in the ethnomedicinal literature of India. Basella alba, Blepharis repens, Capparis sepiaria, Oxalis corniculata and Ricinus communis are used for the treatment of aphthae; Azima tetracantha, Caesalpinia coriaria, Cleome gynandra, Gossypium herbacium, Leucas aspera, Merremia chryseides, Pergularia daemia, Prosopis juliflora and Solanum nigrum are used to treat tooth ache and Cassia hirsuta and Cassia tora are used in the treatment of plaque and caries.