Carica papaya Leaves Juice Significantly Accelerates
the Rate of Increase in Platelet Count among Patients with
Dengue Fever and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever

Soobitha Subenthiran,1 Tan Chwee Choon,2 Kee Chee Cheong,3Ravindran Thayan,4 Mok Boon Teck,1 Prem KumarMuniandy,1

Adlin Afzan,1 Noor Rain Abdullah,1 and Zakiah Ismail1

1 Bioassay Unit, Herbal Medicine Research Center, Institute for Medical Research, Jalan Pahang, 50588 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2Department of Internal Medicine, Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital, Jalan Langat, 41200 Klang, Malaysia

3 Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Institute for Medical Research, Jalan Pahang, 50588 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

4Virology Unit, Infectious Disease Research Center, Institute for Medical Research, Jalan Pahang, 50588 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Correspondence should be addressed to Soobitha Subenthiran; drsoobi@hotmail.com

Received 7 January 2013; Revised 21 March 2013; Accepted 21 March 2013

Academic Editor: Martin Kohlmeier

Copyright © 2013 Soobitha Subenthiran et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution

License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly

cited.

Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Volume 2013, Article ID 616737, 7 pages

http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/616737

Submitted by Mr CS Soong

The study was conducted to investigate the platelet increasing property of Carica papaya leaves juice (CPLJ) in patients with dengue fever (DF). An open labeled randomized controlled trial was carried out on 228 patients with DF and dengue haemorrhagic fever

(DHF). Approximately half the patients received the juice, for 3 consecutive days while the others remained as controls and received the standard management. Their full blood count was monitored 8 hours for 48 hours. Gene expression studies were conducted on the ALOX 12 and PTAFR genes. The mean increase in platelet counts were compared in both groups using repeated measure ANCOVA. There was a significant increase in mean platelet count observed in the intervention group (𝑃 < 0.001) but not in the control group 40 hours since the first dose of CPLJ. Comparison of mean platelet count between intervention and control

group showed that mean platelet count in intervention group was significantly higher than control group after 40 and 48 hours of admission (𝑃 < 0.01). The ALOX 12 (FC = 15.00) and PTAFR (FC = 13.42) genes were highly expressed among those on the juice.

It was concluded that CPLJ does significantly increase the platelet count in patients with DF and DHF.

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