Report - Renovation of a traditional Ergh-al-Nassa pill (Hab) to a standard Pharmaceutical molded tablet.

The Ergh-al-Nassa pill (Hab) is a traditional combination suggested as one of the most effective preparations useful for treatment of sciatica. Although traditional preparations can be applied as new therapeutic drugs for investigations and clinical trials, they need to be reformulated to achieve pharmacopoeial standards for modern medicine. In this research, based on seven traditional Persian pharmacopeias for Ergh-al-NassaHab, nine different molded tablets were reformulated. Each formulation comprised the same amount of colchicum, ginger, aloe and yellow myrobalan fruit. Sweet almond oil had to be added in the maximum amount needed to be absorbed by the yellow myrobalan fruit according to its particle size (30-40 mesh sizes). The studies were performed in order to optimize the formulation process according to the role of three levels in particle size of the herbal ingredients (60-70, 80-100, 100-150 mesh sizes) and three levels of initial water for granulation. The molded tablets were evaluated according to standard quality controls for tablets (mass uniformity, LOD, hardness, friability, and disintegration time at 20 and 30 min). Myrobalan powdered to 30-40 mesh size absorbed the maximum amount of sweet almond oil (1:0.75 w/v). The best formulations occurred when the particle size of colchicum, ginger, and aloe was 60-70 mesh size with an initial moisture content of 0.47 ml per 1g of dried powder. The outcome of this research is a pharmaceutical standardized formulation from the traditional Ergh-al-Nassa pill which can be suggested as a sample drug discovery based on traditional knowledge.