الفهرس 
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Abstract
Jaundice is one of the most common and annoying problems that occur in the newborn. Jaundice is observed during the first week of life in approximately 60% of term neonates and 80% of preterm neonates.
It is usually harmless if seen in infants after the second day after birth, lasting until day 8 in normal births or around day 14 in premature births.
Conventional treatment for severe unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia consists of phototherapy and exchange transfusion. Phototherapy, however, has several known disadvantages while exchange transfusion is associated with a significant morbidity, and even mortality. These harmful effects indicate the need to develop alternative pharmacological treatment strategies for unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia. Generally, these strategies aim to decrease the plasma concentration of unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) by inhibiting production stimulating hepatic clearance, or interrupting the enterohepatic circulation of the pigment.
In the intestine, conjugated bilirubin is extensively hydrolyzed by β-glucuronidases to UCB, which can be converted to urobilinoids or can be reabsorbed into the enterohepatic circulation Plain dried agar, an extract of seaweed is thought to stabilize bilirubin in aqueous solution and prevent its bacterial conversion and reabsorption from the intestinal tract In our study a total of 100 fullterm healthy infants , aged ≥ 48 hours, weighed ≥ 2.5kg with total serum bilirubin between 12 and 15 mg/dl were enrolled in the study. the neonates included in the study were randomly assigned to one of two groups. (1) Agar group, neonates in this group received 500mg of plain agar orally dissolved in 10ml of sterile water every 6hours before feeding for 72 hours.
(2) Placebo group, neonates in this group received 10ml of sterile water orally every 6hours before feeding. Total serum bilirubin (with direct fraction) at start (1st TSB) and Total serum bilirubin after 72 hours (2nd TSB) were measured.
Neonates with unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia who show evidence of hemolysis, sepsis, cholestasis were excluded. Premature neonates were also excluded from our study.
Data was collected, tabulated and statistically analyzed.
We found that there was no statistical difference (P = 0.127) between mean 2nd TSB in both groups. This data revealed that oral administration of agar has no effect on the course of physiologic jaundice.
An interesting finding in our study was that the percentage of neonates with a 2nd TSB > 15 was (14%) of placebo group compared to (2%) of agar group(P=0.027), this may indicate that agar may have a role in prevention of exaggeration of physiologic jaundice.