Infantile convulsions

Hovenia dulcis Thunb. Zhi Bei Zi (Japanese raisin tree) (stem bark) Ebelin lactone, hovenosides, potassium malate, potassium nitrate.27-50 For rectal diseases, constipation, infantile convulsions, antispasmodic, febrifuge. 

N.A. Liquidambar orientalis Mill. L. styraciflua L. Levant storax cinnamic acid, cinnamyl cinnamate, phenylprepyl cinnamate, triterpene acid.99 Internally for strokes, infantile convulsions, coma, heart disease, and pruritus. 

Signs of infantile beriberi include tachycardia, vomiting, convulsions, and, if not treated, death. The deficiency syndrome can have a rapid onset in nursing infants whose mothers are deficient in thiamine. Adult beriberi is characterized by dry skin, irritability, disorderly thinking, and progressive paralysis. 

Sir William Brooke O Shaughnessy introduced Indian hemp to the West in 1839. William Brooke O Shaughnessy entered the service of the East India Company in 1833 as assistant surgeon. He studied the botany and chemistry of herbs used in oriental medicine and incorporated some into his edition of the Bengal Pharmacopoeia published in 1842. One of these herbs was cannabis, or Indian hemp. His medical treatise recommended an extract from the plant for patients with rabies, cholera, tetanus, and infantile convulsions. Until the end of the 19th century prominent physicians of Europe and North America advocated cannabis extracts for the prevention and symptomatic treatment of migraine headache. 

As shown in Table 9.4, vitamin Be dependency has been reported in cases of type I primary hyperoxaluria, xanthurenic aciduria, homocystinuria, hypochromic sideroblastic anemia, gyrate atrophy with ornithinemia, and vitamin Be responsive infantile convulsions. In this last condition, the underlying defect has not been identified, but is almost certainly not impaired activity of glutamate decarboxylase. 

Bessey OA, Adam DJD, and HansenAE (1957) Intake ofvitamin Be and infantile convulsions a first approximation to the requirements of pyridoxine in infants. Pediatrics 20, 33-44. 

Cotte and Plantier (Cll) also applied tryptophan loading (0.54 mg/ kg) as a tool for detecting pyridoxine deficiency in children by means of xanthurenic acid determination. The investigation was extended to normal controls, tuberculous children treated with isoniazid, 9 with convulsive syndrome and infantile seizures, 2 with Wilson s disease, and 2 with Fanconi s anemia. 

There is evidence that the central histaminergic neurons play an important role in inhibiting convulsions in the immature brain, where the GABA system is less effective than in the adult brain. Histamine acts via an Hi receptor and other Hi receptor antagonists can cause seizures. The authors proposed that ketotifen induces infantile spasms by antagonizing Hi receptors. 

There are several vitamin Bg-responsive inborn errors of metabolism that include (1) cases of infantile convulsions in which the apoenzyme for glutamate decarboxylase has a poor affinity for the coenzyme (2) a type of chronic anemia in which the number but not morphological abnormality of erythrocytes is improved by pyridoxine supplementation (3) xanthurenic aciduria in which affinity of the mutant kynureninase for PLP is decreased (4) primary cystathion-inuria caused by similarly defective cystathionase and (5) homocystinuria in which there is less of the normal cystathionine synthetase. In these cases increased levels (200 to lOOOmg/day) of administered vitamin Bg are required for life. Low vitamin Bg status (together with low vitamin B12 and folate status) in humans has been linked to hyperho-mocysteinemia and as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. ... 

Pyridoxine 10-50 mg Infantile convulsions Perhaps glutamate decarboxylase... 

For infantile convulsions, add Ramulus Uncariae Cum Uncis (Gou Teng), Rhizoma Gastrodiae Elatae (Tian Ma), and Bombyx Batryticatus (Jiang Can). 

Indications Warm and hot diseases, hot evils internally sinking into the pericardium, phlegm heat gathering and blocking the portals of the heart. Total or partial loss of consciousness due to acute encephalitis, acute meningitis, acute hepatitis, pneumonia, dysentery, uremia, hepatic coma, cerebrovascular accident, infantile convulsions, and schizophrenia... 

Main signs symptoms High fever, vexation and agitation, confused spirit, delirious speech, possible wind stroke with loss of consciousness and coma, infantile convulsions and spasms due to evil heat blocking internally... 

Aneilema scapiflorum Wight. Commelmaceae W. Pen, temp and trop Him, Ind root bark infantile convulsions - 34, 50... 

Crossostepkium Chinese L. Compositae Jap. Chi. Tai. Phi leaves infantile convulsions decoction 35... 

Micromelum compression Blco. Metr. Rutaceae Phi young shoots infantile convulsions with other ingredients 35... 

Verbasum thaps us L. Scrophulanaceae temp Him, Bri, Ksh, Bhu seeds infantile convulsions - 37... 

While in Cameroon the decoction of this root bark is well known in traditional medicine for the treatment of pain, malaria, fever, epilepsy, and infantile convulsions, the association with tramadol is questionable. 

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