Optimum Pharmaceuticals (HBL) Product List

Optimum Pharmaceuticals (HBL) is a Bangladeshi manufacturer whose range on Arogga is entirely herbal and nutraceutical, sold under short brand names rather than under the name of the plant or nutrient inside.

The grid above is the live list, under Herbal & Nutraceuticals. The sections below cover what is known about each product, and what to be careful about when taking a herbal preparation alongside anything else.

What the Listings Do and Do Not Tell You

Worth saying plainly before anything else, because it changes how you should use this page.

Most of these listings carry the brand name and nothing more — no registered generic, no strength, no dosage form. A few do carry a generic, and each of those is covered in detail below, because there is something reliable to say about them.

For the rest, the honest position is that this page cannot tell you what is inside, and neither can the listing. Do not infer it from the product name. A name that sounds like a plant or an organ is a brand, not a composition, and treating it as one is how the wrong thing gets taken.

Ask the pharmacist before ordering any of them, or bring the pack to one. Arogga’s pharmacists review orders and can tell you what a product contains.

The Full Range

Every product currently listed, in alphabetical order:

• Arthomum
• Erectop
• G-Pro
• Hepaneo
• Infecnocea
• J-Wort
• Menstone
• Neuromum — one of the better-converting listings in the range.
• Oximum 100ml and Oximum 200ml — the only line stocked in two sizes.
• Palmet — the most opened listing on the brand.
• Ginset
• Smilon
• Spiromum

Each listing carries its own current price, pack size and stock. The products with a registered generic have their own sections below.

Ginkoba — Ginkgo Biloba

Ginkoba is registered against the generic Ginkgo Biloba, a leaf extract taken for circulation and memory.

The interaction that matters

Ginkgo affects how readily blood clots. Taken alongside warfarin, clopidogrel, aspirin or any other blood thinner, it adds to their effect and raises bleeding risk.

Tell your doctor if you are taking it, and stop it at least two weeks before any planned surgery or dental extraction. Anyone with a bleeding disorder, or on medication for one, should not take it without medical advice.

What to expect

Effects, where they occur, build over weeks rather than days. Headache, stomach upset and dizziness are the commonly reported unwanted effects, and any of them is a reason to stop and ask.

Lipilow — Garlic Oil

Lipilow is registered against Garlic Oil, taken for cholesterol and general cardiovascular health.

Concentrated garlic carries the same bleeding caution as ginkgo: it should be mentioned to a doctor before surgery and taken carefully alongside a blood thinner. It can also reduce the blood levels of some medicines, including certain HIV treatments, so anyone on long-term medication should check first.

Taken for cholesterol, it is an addition to diet and exercise rather than a replacement for a statin that has been prescribed. Stopping a prescribed medicine in favour of a supplement is the decision that does the damage here.

Lowtens — Sarpagandha

Lowtens is registered against Sarpagandha, the root of Rauwolfia serpentina, traditionally used to lower blood pressure.

This one deserves more caution than the rest of the range, because it is pharmacologically active in a way most herbal preparations are not. Rauwolfia is the plant reserpine was isolated from, and reserpine is a recognised antihypertensive medicine.

Why that matters

Taken alongside prescribed blood pressure medication it can lower pressure further than intended. It is associated with low mood and should not be taken by anyone with a history of depression. It can also cause nasal congestion, slowed heart rate and drowsiness.

Blood pressure is not something to manage by trial. If yours is raised, it should be measured and treated under medical supervision, and anything herbal taken alongside that should be disclosed.

Herbal Medicines Alongside Prescription Medicines

The most useful thing on this page, and the part most often skipped.

“Natural” does not mean inert

A plant extract strong enough to have an effect is strong enough to have an interaction. The products above with a known generic illustrate it: two affect clotting and one lowers blood pressure.

The reasoning that gets people into trouble is that a herbal product is a gentler version of a medicine, so the two can safely overlap. It is the opposite way round. Where a herb and a drug act on the same system, the effects add up, and the dose that was carefully set by a doctor is no longer the dose being taken.

Tell your doctor and your pharmacist

Most people do not mention herbal products when asked what they are taking, because the question is heard as being about prescriptions. It is not. List everything, including anything taken occasionally.

The moments to raise it

An undisclosed herbal product causes the most trouble at four specific points:

• Before any planned surgery or dental procedure.
• Before trying to conceive, and during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
• Whenever a new prescription is written.
• Before a blood test, because some preparations affect the results.

Raise it at each of them rather than waiting to be asked. A pharmacist can check an interaction in a minute, and it is a far shorter conversation than the one that follows a problem.

When a Herbal Product Is Not the Right Choice

Some situations call for a diagnosis rather than a product, and buying one delays the other.

Symptoms that need investigating

None of the following is a case for self-treatment of any kind:

• Chest pain or breathlessness.
• Unexplained weight loss, or a persistent fever.
• Blood anywhere it should not be.
• A new lump, or any symptom that is getting worse rather than better.

Each of these needs a diagnosis, and buying a product instead delays one. That delay is the real risk of self-treating, more than anything in the product itself.

Conditions already being treated

Diabetes, hypertension, thyroid disease, epilepsy, heart disease and any condition managed with regular medication. Adding something on top without telling anyone is how a stable condition becomes an unstable one.

Children are a separate case again. Doses for adults do not scale down reliably, and very little herbal safety data exists for them at all, so nothing here should be given to a child without asking.

Pregnancy and breastfeeding

Safety data for herbal preparations in pregnancy is thin, and absence of evidence is not reassurance. Ask before taking anything, including products that seem mild.

Storage and Shelf Life

Herbal preparations are as sensitive to heat and damp as any other medicine, and often more so.

Keep them in the original container with the label on, somewhere cool and dry and out of direct sunlight, away from children. A bathroom cabinet is the worst common storage because of the humidity.

Check the expiry date, and treat a liquid preparation as having a shorter life once opened than a sealed one. If the colour, smell or consistency has changed, do not take it.

Where Optimum Sits on Arogga

The whole range sits on one shelf, Herbal & Nutraceuticals, which sits within the medicine section’s miscellaneous group.

Readers weighing a herbal preparation against a conventional supplement will find the alternatives under Nutritional & Energy Supplements and Vitamin, Mineral & Nutritional Deficiency, where the composition is stated on every listing.

That difference is the practical reason to look there first. A vitamin or mineral preparation tells you the substance and the dose on the front of the pack, so one can be compared directly against another and a daily intake can be worked out. A herbal preparation sold under an invented name allows neither.

Both change without notice, so treat the listing as current and this page as background.

About Optimum Pharmaceuticals (HBL)

Optimum Pharmaceuticals (HBL) manufactures in Bangladesh, and what Arogga carries from it is a herbal and nutraceutical range rather than a conventional drug catalogue. Every listing sits on the same shelf.

The range is sold under short invented brand names. One line is stocked in two bottle sizes and the rest in a single presentation each.

It is registered as Optimum Pharmaceuticals (HBL) and also searched as Optimum Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Optimum Pharma and, in Bangla, অপটিমাম ফার্মাসিউটিক্যালস. All of those reach this list.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is in these products?

Only some carry a registered generic — Ginkoba is Ginkgo Biloba, Lipilow is Garlic Oil, Lowtens is Sarpagandha. The rest currently carry the brand name only. Do not infer a composition from a product name; ask a pharmacist, who can check before you order.

2. Can I take these with my regular medicines?

Ask first. A plant extract strong enough to have an effect is strong enough to have an interaction — among the products here with a known generic, two affect blood clotting and one lowers blood pressure. Tell your doctor and pharmacist everything you take, including occasional products.

3. Is Ginkoba safe if I take a blood thinner?

Not without medical advice. Ginkgo biloba affects how readily blood clots and adds to the effect of warfarin, clopidogrel or aspirin. It should also be stopped at least two weeks before planned surgery or a dental extraction.

4. Can Lipilow replace my cholesterol medicine?

No. Garlic oil is an addition to diet and exercise, not a substitute for a statin that has been prescribed. Stopping a prescribed medicine in favour of a supplement is the decision that causes harm here. It can also affect the blood levels of some other medicines.

5. Why does Lowtens need more caution than the others?

Because it is pharmacologically active in a way most herbal preparations are not. Sarpagandha is the plant reserpine was isolated from, and reserpine is a recognised blood pressure medicine. It can lower pressure further than intended alongside prescribed treatment and is associated with low mood.

6. Are herbal products safe in pregnancy?

Safety data is thin, and absence of evidence is not reassurance. Ask a doctor or pharmacist before taking anything while pregnant or breastfeeding, including products that seem mild.

7. অপটিমাম ফার্মাসিউটিক্যালস এর প্রোডাক্ট লিস্ট কোথায় পাবো?

উপরের গ্রিডেই অপটিমাম ফার্মাসিউটিক্যালস (এইচবিএল) এর সব পণ্য দেখা যাবে। তিনটি পণ্যের জেনেরিক নাম দেওয়া আছে; বাকিগুলোর উপাদান জানতে অর্ডারের আগে ফার্মাসিস্টের সাথে কথা বলুন।

8. How should these be stored?

In the original container with the label on, somewhere cool, dry and out of sunlight, away from children. A bathroom cabinet is the worst common choice because of the humidity. If colour, smell or consistency has changed, do not take it.