Abdul Waheed, Nosheen Javaid, Shamim Ahmed, Shahid Qureshi.
Dal Mong and Rice Based Oral Rehydration Solution as compared to Glucose Electrolyte Solution in the treatment of Acute Diarrhea.
Pak J Health Jan ;35(3-4):80-1.

Oralnu is based on an empirical recipy (Khichri) of diarrhoea, used in Pakistan. Rice is a cereal and Dal Mong (Phasculus Mungo) is a pulse which provides dried edible seeds which are rich in carbohydrates and proteins. The study was carried out on 80, 4 months-5 years old children. Who were admitted to the Paediatric Unit of Services Hospital with a history of acute watery diarrhoea of no more than 10 days duration. Subjects with moderate to severe dehydration were enrolled in the study after parental consent. These children were randomly allocated to one of two groups. ORALUN group (the group which was given rice and dal-mong based ORS) and ORS group (the group which was given W.H.O. ORS). Both the groups were rehydrated according to W.H.O`s recommendations. In severe rehydration subjects were given I/V fluids for first 6 hours and then were put on ORS. Children with any additional disorder such as bronchopneumonia, measles etc were not included, children with weight for height less than 10 years of expected were also excluded from the study. Results: Average duration of stay in hospital in oralnu group is 49.4 +/- 24.5 hours and in ORS group is 95.5 +/- 34.4 hours. Oralnu group has significantly less hours stay in hospital for treatment (p=0.04). Oralnu group on average passes significantly less amount of stool/kg/hours as compared to ORS group (P=0.007). Oralnu group showed better response and requires significantly less amount of rehydration solution. There is trend to gain more weight in Oralnu group as compared to ORS group. Conclusion: Results of the study show that this rice and mong dal based (Oralnu) has effectively treated moderate to severe diarrheas. As it significantly reduced the volume of purging, frequency and duration of diarrheas, even the mothers could appreciate the difference.

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