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Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants
01 Jan 1956-
About: The article was published on 1956-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 5432 citation(s) till now. The article focuses on the topic(s): Glossary.
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TL;DR: 45 plants and their products that have been mentioned/used in the Indian traditional system of medicine and have shown experimental or clinical anti-diabetic activity are reviewed.
Abstract: Since ancient times, plants have been an exemplary source of medicine. Ayurveda and other Indian literature mention the use of plants in treatment of various human ailments. India has about 45 000 plant species and among them, several thousands have been claimed to possess medicinal properties. Research conducted in last few decades on plants mentioned in ancient literature or used traditionally for diabetes have shown anti-diabetic property. The present paper reviews 45 such plants and their products (active, natural principles and crude extracts) that have been mentioned/used in the Indian traditional system of medicine and have shown experimental or clinical anti-diabetic activity. Indian plants which are most effective and the most commonly studied in relation to diabetes and their complications are: Allium cepa, Allium sativum, Aloe vera, Cajanus cajan, Coccinia indica, Caesalpinia bonducella, Ficus bengalenesis, Gymnema sylvestre, Momordica charantia, Ocimum sanctum, Pterocarpus marsupium, Swertia chirayita, Syzigium cumini, Tinospora cordifolia and Trigonella foenum graecum. Among these we have evaluated M. charantia, Eugenia jambolana, Mucuna pruriens, T. cordifolia, T. foenum graecum, O. sanctum, P. marsupium, Murraya koeingii and Brassica juncea. All plants have shown varying degree of hypoglycemic and anti-hyperglycemic activity.
1,541 citations
TL;DR: Qualitative phytochemical tests, thin layer chromatography and TLC-bioautography of certain active extracts demonstrated the presence of common phytocompounds in the plant extracts including phenols, tannins and flavonoids as major active constituents.
Abstract: Ethanolic extracts of 45 Indian medicinal plants traditionally used in medicine were studied for their antimicrobial activity against certain drug-resistant bacteria and a yeast Candida albicans of clinical origin. Of these, 40 plant extracts showed varied levels of antimicrobial activity against one or more test bacteria. Anticandidal activity was detected in 24 plant extracts. Overall, broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity was observed in 12 plants (L. inermis, Eucalyptus sp., H. antidysentrica, H. indicus, C. equistifolia. T. belerica, T. chebula, E. officinalis, C. sinensis, S. aromaticum and P. granatum). No correlation was observed between susceptibility of test strains with plant extracts and antibiotic resistance behaviour of the microbial strains (Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella paratyphi, Shigella dysenteriae, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Candida albicans). Qualitative phytochemical tests, thin layer chromatography and TLC-bioautography of certain active extracts demonstrated the presence of common phytocompounds in the plant extracts including phenols, tannins and flavonoids as major active constituents.
1,172 citations
Cites background or result from "Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants..."
...Traditionally used medicinal plants produce a variety of compounds of known therapeutic properties (Iyengar, 1985; Chopra et al., 1992; Harborne and Baxter, 1995)....
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...The selection of medicinal plants is based on their traditional uses (32 plants) in India and our reported antimicrobial activity of 13 plants (Chopra et al., 1992; Ahmad et al., 1998; Mehmood et al., 1999)....
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...Our phytochemical analyses are in agreement with the reports of other workers (Iyengar, 1985; Chopra et al., 1992; Bruneton, 1995; Harborne and Baxter, 1995; Cai and Wu, 1996)....
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TL;DR: Among various extracts, only alcoholic extracts of Emblica officinalis, terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica, Plumbago zeylanica and Holarrhena antidysenterica were found to show potentially interesting activity against test bacteria.
Abstract: A total of 82 Indian medicinal plants traditionally used in medicines were subjected to preliminary antibacterial screening against several pathogenic and opportunistic microorganisms. Aqueous, hexane and alcoholic extracts of each plant were tested for their antibacterial activity using agar well diffusion method at sample concentration of 200 mg/ml. The results indicated that out of 82 plants, 56 exhibited antibacterial activity against one or more test pathogens. Interestingly, extracts of five plants showed strong and broad spectrum activity as compared to rest of 51 plant extracts which demonstrated moderate activity. On the whole the alcoholic extracts showed greater activity than their corresponding aqueous and hexane extracts. Among various extracts, only alcoholic extracts of Emblica officinalis, Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica, Plumbago zeylanica and Holarrhena antidysenterica were found to show potentially interesting activity against test bacteria. These active crude alcoholic extracts were also assayed for cellular toxicity to fresh sheep erythrocytes and found to have no cellular toxicity.
998 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This review gives a bird’s eye view mainly on the biological activities of some of the neem compounds isolated, pharmacological actions ofThe neem extracts, clinical studies and plausible medicinal applications of neem along with their safety evaluation.
Abstract: Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) is perhaps the most useful traditional medicinal plant in India. Each part of the neem tree has some medicinal property and is thus commercially exploitable. During the last five decades, apart from the chemistry of the neem compounds, considerable progress has been achieved regarding the biological activity and medicinal applications of neem. It is now considered as a valuable source of unique natural products for development of medicines against various diseases and also for the development of industrial products. This review gives a bird’s eye view mainly on the biological activities of some of the neem compounds isolated, pharmacological actions of the neem extracts, clinical studies and plausible medicinal applications of neem along with their safety evaluation. MEDICINAL plants are part and parcel of human society to combat diseases, from the dawn of civilization. Azadirachta indica A. Juss (syn. Melia azadirachta) is well known in India and its neighbouring countries for more than 2000 years as one of the most versatile medicinal plants having a wide spectrum of biological activity. A. indica A. Juss and M. azedarach are two closely related species of Meliaceae. The former is popularly known as Indian neem (margosa tree) or Indian lilac, and the latter as the Persian lilac. Neem is an evergreen tree, cultivated in various parts of the Indian subcontinent. Every part of the tree has been used as traditional medicine for household remedy against various human ailments, from antiquity 1–6 . Neem has been extensively used in ayurveda, unani and homoeopathic medicine and has become a cynosure of modern medicine. The sanskrit name of the neem tree is ‘Arishtha’ meaning ‘reliever of sickness’ and hence is considered as ‘Sarbaroganib arini’. The tree is still regarded as ‘village dispensary’ in India. The importance of the neem tree has been recognized by the US National Academy of Sciences, which published a report in 1992 entitled ‘Neem – a tree for solving global problems’. The advancement of neem research has earlier been documented 7,8
975 citations
Cites background from "Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants..."
...The spermicidal activity of nimbidin and nimbin (1) was reported in rats and human as early as 1959 (refs 28, 29)....
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