Shingles remedies based on analysis of accordion-folded Malay medical manuscript MSS 3048

Shingles or herpes zoster (HZ) is a painful disease caused by reactivation of latent varicella zoster virus (VZV) in the sensory dorsal root ganglion cells of human body after the primary infection, chickenpox. Currently, there is no drug that can cure it besides for symptoms relief. Therefore, traditional remedies from credible sources such as the Malay medical manuscript MSS 3048 was referred to for getting various valuable medicinal information regarding cure and treatment of shingles disease. A transliterated Malay medical manuscript (MMM) containing remedies on shingles disease was selected, followed by data extraction and tabulation on its formulations and ingredients used. Subsequently, ingredients from the formulations were comparatively analysed against contemporary studies to discover scientific evidence and pharmacological properties that has high potential to be developed as new pharmaceutical products. After evaluation using SAKTI-iPharmaprospect index, the highly scored-formulations were assessed based on comparative analysis to determine the best formulations that can be recommended for further studies. In MSS 3048, 19 formulations were discovered for shingles disease. Data analysis and comparative study on shingles provided information on pharmacological properties of each plant and there were a few plants having high scientific evidences including Annona spp., Piper betel Linn, Schima wallichii, Dipterocarpus spp., Areca catechu, Euphorbia hirta and Quercus infectoria. The use of SAKTI-iPharmaprospect discovered eight Grade A formulations and after assessment with contemporary scientific evidence, three formulations which were F2, F4 and F15 were selected as the best formulations. In conclusion, grade A formulations, F2, F4 and F15 have high potential to be selected for further studies and developed into new pharmaceutical products. The findings from this study may contribute to future laboratory works and research for development of pharmaceutical products for shingles treatment and Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) in Malaysia.