You may have heard this elsewhere but if not I am glad to inform you that pegaga juice is a natural cure for dengue fever. As dengue fever is rampant now, I think it's good to share this with all.

A friend of mine had dengue last year. It was a very serious situation for her as her platelet count had dropped to 28,000 after 3 days in hospital and water has started to fill up her lung. She had difficulty in breathing. She was only 32-year old. Doctor says there's no cure for dengue. We just have to wait for her body immune system to build up resistance against dengue and fight its own battle. She already had 2 blood transfusion and all of us were praying very hard as her platelet continued to drop since the first day she was admitted.

Fortunately her mother-in-law heard that pegaga juice would help to reduce the fever and got some pegaga leaves, pounded them and squeeze the juice out for her. The next day, her platelet count started to increase, her fever subside. We continued to feed her with pegaga juice and she recovered after 3 days!!! Amazing but it's true. It's believed one's body would be overheated when one is down with dengue and that also caused the patient to have fever.

Pegaga juice has cooling effect. Thus, it helps to reduce the heatiness in one's body, thus the fever will go away. I found that its also good when one is having sore throat or suffering from heatiness.

Those of us staying in Subang Jaya are lucky as we can get Pegaga juice easily from the Penang Cendol stall in Giant! One cup is only RM1. Tomorrow I will buy a cup for a patient in Assunta and urge him to try it.


Please spread the news about this as lately there are many dengue cases. It's great if such natural cure could help to ease the sufferings of dengue patients. Furthermore it's so easily available. Just go to market and ask the makcik who sells ulam and they usually have pegaga. Blend them and squeeze the juice! It's simple and miraculously effective!!

Err...TQ RolyPoly ...Pegaga leaves are traditionally known to have medicinal properties...ahem...no harm trying what has been recommended in here.

Or Here Also.

Here's a page of information on Pegaga (Centella asiatica)

http://www.herbmed.org/Herbs/Herb95.htm

There are no studies to show any benefit or adverse/harmful effects of Pegaga in the treatment of dengue fever.

Please note that in dengue, herbs or "supplements" which affect platelet function or promote "circulation" may actually increase the tendency to bleed which is already high in dengue patients (due to low platelets and impaired clotting function). They MUST NOT be given to patients with dengue.
These include:
Ginseng products
Gingko
Ling Zhi
Spirulina
Large doses of garlic

In addition to the link above, here are some precautions and contraindications of Centella asiatica (source: Lexidrugs Natural Products database):
- contraindicated during pregancy (abortificant in animal studies)
- large doses may be sedating : additive effect if given with CNS depressants
- high doses elevate cholesterol levels

A patient with dengue will have fever which runs an average of about 1 week. If you treat with Pegaga, the so-called "cure" , the patient's fever will last only seven days :P
Please note that anectdotal observations are not reliable evidence of "cure". Any "treatment" given at the tail end of dengue will appear "miraculous".

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Malaysian Medical Resources

I thought this merits a blog posting in the Malaysian Medical Resources

Dengue fever - herbal warning

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Anyone out there knows the Tamil word for " pegaga " ?

Also, whats the leaf call in chinese? Any pictures?

Suddently you see a long q from giant to summit. Why? People q up to buy pegaga juice from the ais kacang guy who rented a tanker from shell filled with pegaga juice and selling it now for RM10 per glass!

The power of Google

http://alternativehealing.org/centella_asiatica.htm for pictures and Big5 Chinese name

This page is responsible enough to put up a warning:
do not use during pregnancy or during breast feeding. Consuming large amount causes nausea and dizziness.

Vernacular names: Sanskrit - Mandukaparni - Brahmi; Hindi - Brahmamanduki - Gotu kola; English - Indian Pennywort; Unani - Khulakudi; Bengali - Tholkuri; Malayalam - Muttil; Gujarati - Karbrahmi; Tamil - Vallarai; Japanese - Tsubokura; Tibetan - Sin-mnar

http://www.niam.com/corp-web/centella.htm

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In Cantonese it's called "pan sai woon" - for the smaller leaf version.
The pegaga sold in Giant is the bigger leaf version, called "pan tai woon"

Do check with those who practise Chinesese medicine and they may inform you that this leaf has cooling effect. Good to be taken around this time where the heat is scorching hot, especially in the afternoon.

The pix can be seen in the link posted by Orchi http://www.mardi.my/bdc/herba/bm/Pegaga.html

Btw, has anyone tried taking "Vapelei leaves" for cleansing of blood or diabetes or high blood pressure? These leaves are usually planted in the compound of Hindu temples or homes.

It was suggested by an Indian auntie that I take it as I always have rashes. She claimed that the leaves can help cleanse my blood and reduce my allergy that caused the rashes.

I have tried pounding the leaves and bake them in order to dry them. Then I stuff the dried leaves into capsules for easy consumption. I don't know if that'd reduce the effectiveness. Anyway I feel more at ease when it comes to consuming natural herbs with medicinal benefits.

I was once prescribed predniselone - a steroid medicine - without my realization by a skin specialist. As a result, I had water retention. My face looks fuller and I was told by a pharmacist that in the long run, it could lead to kidney failure! I went back to askconfront the doctor on why did he prescribed me a harmful medicine without advising me on its negative effects!

So, nowadays I would ask my doctor to name me the medicine I am prescribed and explained to me their side effects, if there are any. Otherwise, it can be harmful just to consume medicines ignorantly, though they are prescribed by doctors.

HI Rolypoly. It's quite a common thing to feel more at ease taking herbs.
I suspect this is because of the common misconception that herbs, because they are natural, are safe and free of side effects.
This could not be further from the truth

Herbs are plants with medicinal properties. They are drugs. Like all drugs, you could be affected by Overdosage or an Adverse/Side effect.
My most memorable encounter with herbal overdosage was when a bunch of people were admitted to UH years ago with delirium, dilated pupils, racing pulses and warm dry skin. They all exhibited the classic symptoms of Belladona alkaloid poisoning (these are plants with the active ingredients Atropine and Scopolamine which are also used in "Western medicine"). The colorful description of this overdosage is "Mad as a Hatter, Hot as a Hare, and Blind as a Bat"
Anyway, the common factor in their history was that they had all stopped to take a drink from the herbal drink stall outside Herbs&Food in SS15. We reported this to the Health authorities and I noticed the stall disappeared for sometime. This was about 10+ years ago IIANM.
Luckily everyone recovered.

There is a large body of information now with regard to the potential side effects of herbs and medicinal plants. Some of these are really serious. For instance, some Chinese herbs have now been shown to be cancer causing.
I don't wish to see people rusing out to buy and drink Pegaga juice when many might not be aware that pregnancy is a contraindication.
Doctors now have to arm themselves with herbal drug information as these drugs can interact with other medicines and unexplained symptoms could be the result of adverse effects of herbal medicine. So do tell your doctor if you are taking any herbs.

We also need more studies to confirm or refute folklore. Pegaga was used in the past to treat leprosy but if you read the Herbmed link I gave you, you would have read studies were done and found Pegaga had no effect on on the Mycobacteria which causes leprosy.
We are in the era of "evidence based medicine". Its no longer a case of Wester, Eastern, Ayurvedic, Herbal medicine or whatever. It's either Proven or Unproven Medicine.

The other final point I wish to emphasise is do not be gullible. There are far too many "health products" in the market with fantastic claims. The vast majority of these claims are unsubstantiated. They feed on the public's misconception that herbal=natural=safe. So often you'll find the words "natural" in the description. If it comes in a pill form, capsule or processed and bottled, hey, it's no longer "natural"

Btw, I agree any doctor precribing prednisolone should inform the patient of potential adverse effects. Kidney failure is not a direct side effect of steroids! Steroids have strict indications and must be medically supervised. We have found traditional medicines for arthritis and asthma laced with powerful steroids. I recall an unfortunate man who had been taking chinese medicines for years for Gouty arthritis and he was hospitalised for severe steroid overdosage - Cushing's syndrome, diabetes, hypertension and marked osteoporosis.

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Hey Palmdoc,

Thanks for the advice above.

Btw, would you know anything about the vapelei leaves that I took? Have you heard of them?

I Googled for Vapelei but came to naught. Is there another name for this?

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Just curious...what u call this pegaga in English......i m a bit blurrrrrr......

Sorry, I don't know any other name for vapelei leaves.

As for pegaga, the links given by palmdoc gave the names in English...one of them is Asiatic pennywort.

Err...a certain traditional medicine peddlar in ChowKit...could swear that the TongkatAli could cure all...including dengue too!?