Randomized controlled clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of Nava kashaya in the management of Dadru kushtha w.s.r. to Tinea infection.

Human skin since it is the outer covering of the body, is the largest organ

of the body and therefore susceptible to a large number of infections and

diseases. Skin diseases are among the most common diseases faced by a

quite large number of populations ranging from cancerous to non cancerous

diseases .the occurrence of skin diseases varies between different continents

as people are being exposed to different causative elements. These different

skin diseases have individualized diagnosis, treatments and a unique social

stigma among the patients.

According to ayurveda skin, (twak/twacha) is one of the essential sense

organs and is considered important to know the status of dosha and dhatu in

shareera and also twak sarta and ras dhatu sarta depend on the condition of

twacha of that individual. Ayurveda has given prime importance to ahara

(diet) and vihara(lifestyle) in the maintenance of health and prevention of

diseases. In recent era, the relation between diet and skin diseases is well

established and proven in the contemporary medical science.

Ayurveda has its own unique principles of diagnosis and treatment of

various skin diseases under the heading of kustha and the literary meaning

of kustha is one that causes disfiguration. Kustha has been included in

asthamahagada diseases by our acharyas. In Ayurveda texts have described

dadru as one among the types of kustha with etiological factors including

physical, physiological, hereditary, psychological, psychosocial and

papakarma (sinful activities) which are considered as main culprits in

samprapti of dadru . Dadru is characterized by various lakshanas like kandu

(itching), raga (erythema), pidika(eruptions), utsanna mandala(elevated

circular skin lesion) and is faced by a large number of population in their lifetime and hereby taken up for the study.

Dadru can be correlated with Tinea infection described in modern science

and its prevalence rate is 4.1%.

In Ayurveda research works have been done on dadru which have mainly

emphasized on bahiparimarjan chikitsa and few works have done on

antarparimarjan chikitsa i.e shodhan and shaman . realizing the scope and

feasibility of antarparimarjan chikitsa in dadru present study has been taken

up to study the efficacy of Navakashaya in the management of dadru ( Tinea

infection).