Herbal remedies such as purgative manna are used to treat neonatal jaundice. In this study Bilineaster drop (purgative manna) and phototherapy, and phototherapy treatment alone were compared by assessing phototherapy duration and number of days in hospital.

There were 150 consecutive term neonates with jaundice, weighting from 2,500 g to 4,000 g enrolled in this randomized double blind clinical trial. The neonates were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The control patients received only phototherapy and the intervention group underwent phototherapy treatment and purgative manna drop (5 drops per kg of body weight, 3 times a day). Direct and total measurements of bilirubin concentration in the serum were measured and the reduction in concentration of bilirubin was calculated.

There were 28% of patients whose hospital duration following phototherapy was 2 days, for Bilineaster and phototherapy treatment this was 49.3% of patients. At 48 hours and 72 hours the reduction in the concentration of total bilirubin in the serum was statistically significantly different across groups (p < 0.05) but at 24 hours and 96 hours there were no significant differences between groups (p > 0.05). The reduction in direct bilirubin concentration in the serum was significantly different between groups at 72 hours and 96 hours (p > 0.001).

Purgative manna and phototherapy, can statistically significantly reduce total bilirubin concentration at 48 hours and 72 hours compared with phototherapy alone, and reduce the length of hospital stay for jaundiced neonates at 2 days compared with phototherapy treatment.