Can Giloy Cause Liver Damage? Ayurvedic Experts Refutes Claims Linked to This Herb

A study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology, a peer-reviewed journal of the Indian National Association for the Study of the Liver said that Giloy can damage the liver.

The Ministry of AYUSH has rejected a study published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hepatology, a peer-reviewed journal of the Indian National Association for the Study of the Liver. This study mentions that the use of the herb Tinospora Cordifolia (TC), commonly known as ‘Giloy’ or ‘Guduchi’, resulted in liver failure in six patients in Mumbai.

The ministry said “the authors of the study failed in placing all needful details of the cases in a systematic format. Apart from this, relating Giloy or TC to liver damage would be misleading and disastrous to the traditional medicine system of India as Guduchi or Giloy has been used in Ayurveda. The efficacy of TC in managing various disorders is well established.”

Relating Giloy to Liver damage is completely Misleading: @moayush

Relating Giloy or TC to liver damage would be misleading and disastrous to the Traditional Medicine system of India

Read here: https://t.co/WMbt7fbH7T

— PIB India (@PIB_India) July 7, 2021

“It becomes the responsibility of the authors to ascertain that the herb consumed by the patients is TC and not any other herb. To build upon the soundness, the authors would have taken the opinion of a botanist or would have consulted an Ayurveda expert.

“In fact, there are many studies that point out that not identifying the herb correctly could lead to wrong results. A similar looking herb TinosporoCrispa might have a negative effect on the liver. So, before labelling a herb such as Giloy with such toxic nature, the authors should have tried to correctly identify the plants following the standard guidelines, which they did not,” the ministry said.

Publications based on “incomplete information” will open the door for misinformation and defame the age-old practices of Ayurveda, the ministry said.

“It would not be out of context to state here that scientific evidence on medical applications of TC or Giloy as protective to liver, nerves etc. is available,” it said.

“There are other hundreds of studies on Giloy and its safe use. Giloy is one of the most commonly prescribed medicines in Ayurveda. It has proper pharmacopoeia standards in place for the established safety of hepatoprotective properties. No adverse event is noted in any clinical practice by pharmacovigilance or in any clinical study,” it said.

What is Giloy? 

Giloy is an ancient herb that is packed with an array of benefits. Popular for its immunity-boosting properties, giloy helps in actively fighting against various pathogens. It is a part of Indian medicine for a very long time. Giloy literally means ‘Amrita’, which means the root of immortality. Its abundant medicinal properties have time and again proved that giloy is one of the most effective natural medicines.

Health benefits of Giloy:

Dr.Smita Naram, Co-Founder of Ayushakti says that Giloy is a very common herb used in regular Ayurveda products and has multiple benefits. It helps in immunity-boosting and is proven to be an immunomodulator – which means it balances the immune system naturally. So, if your immunity is low, Giloy enhances it and if you have hyper immunity, it can calm it down. Thus, it can never create a hyperactive immune response. This has also been observed in a few patient case studies by our team.

She added that as per the 3000 plus year-old research, published by the scientific community worldwide, including trials on humans, in vivo (on mice) and scholarly articles – it is proven that Guduchi has protected the liver, reversed liver damage even in a dose of 2 gm per kg body weight, which means if there is an intake of 120 gm of Giloy per day, it cannot damage anyone’s liver or any other organs. My observations over the years have highlighted that thousands of people suffering from auto-immune diseases have consumed herbal formulations containing Guduchi and have recovered.

“It is important to note that Guduchi should not be picked from any nearby or unknown place. There are various types of Giloy herbs, which need to be formulated and consumed in different manners. It’s important to intake medicines with alkaloids and active constituents making them of the right quality and should not be taken without expert guidance as one may not know if it’s the real herb, ” Dr.Smita concluded.