OBJECTIVES: Herbal remedies such as purgative manna are used to treat neonatal jaundice. In this study Bilineaster drop (purgative manna) and phototherapy, and phototherapy treatment alone were compared by assessing phototherapy duration and number of days in hospital. METHODS: There were 150 consecutive term neonates with jaundice, weighting from 2,500 g to 4,000 g enrolled in this randomized double blind clinical trial. The neonates were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The control patients received only phototherapy and the intervention group underwent phototherapy treatment and purgative manna drop (5 drops per kg of body weight, 3 times a day). Direct and total measurements of bilirubin concentration in the serum were measured and the reduction in concentration of bilirubin was calculated. RESULTS: There were 28% of patients whose hospital duration following phototherapy was 2 days, for Bilineaster and phototherapy treatment this was 49.3% of patients. At 48 hours and 72 hours the reduction in the concentration of total bilirubin in the serum was statistically significantly different across groups (p < 0.05) but at 24 hours and 96 hours there were no significant differences between groups (p > 0.05). The reduction in direct bilirubin concentration in the serum was significantly different between groups at 72 hours and 96 hours (p > 0.001). CONCLUSION: Purgative manna and phototherapy, can statistically significantly reduce total bilirubin concentration at 48 hours and 72 hours compared with phototherapy alone, and reduce the length of hospital stay for jaundiced neonates at 2 days compared with phototherapy treatment.
Bilirubin ; Body Weight ; Herbal Medicine ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Jaundice ; Jaundice, Neonatal ; Length of Stay ; Phototherapy

In neonates, bilirubin tends to be deposited in body tissues, especially the skin and mucous membranes. Jaundice is an early symptom of bilirubin excretion disorders. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of clofibrate on reducing neonatal jaundice. In this systematic review, international databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane, and Google Scholar, were searched without time and language restrictions. The reference lists of all studies ultimately included were manually searched. In the 17 articles reviewed, with a sample size of 665 people published between 2005 and 2019, the average weight of the neonates varied from 2,186 g to 4,000 g. Furthermore, the average age of neonates varied from 2 days to 9 days. Four doses of clofibrate (25, 30, 50, 100 mg/kg of neonatal body weight) were used. The bilirubin level of neonates significantly decreased in the intervention group 24, 36, 48, and 72 hours after the start of treatment. Clofibrate administration decreased total serum bilirubin, especially from the second day onwards, and also reduced hospitalization time, hospital costs, and side effects from hospitalization.