Indian Herbal Drug for General Healthcare: An Overview

The medicinal plants are important therapeutic aids for alleviating various ailments of humankind. In the recent past there has been a tremendous increase in the use of plant-based health products in developing as well as developed countries resulting in an exponential growth of herbal products globally. An upward trend has been observed in the research on herbals. Export–Import Bank reports reveal that the global trade of plant-derived and plant originated products is around US 60 billion. Herbal medicines have a strong traditional or conceptual base and the potential to be useful as drugs in terms of safety and effectiveness leads for treating different diseases. India, with its mega-biodiversity and knowledge-rich ancient traditional systems of medicine viz. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Amchi and local health traditions, provides a strong base for the utilization of a large number of plants in general healthcare and alleviation of common ailments of the people. A number of Indian medicinal plants are used as rejuvenators as well as for treating various disease conditions. They may be tonics, antimalarials, antipyretics, aphrodisiacs, expectorants, hepatoprotectives, antirheumatics, diuretics etc. However, proper methodologies for the research and development are the need of the day for tapping the full therapeutic potentials of plants. In the present article an endeavor has been made to present an overview of the Indian medicinal plants used for general healthcare. Since the different systems of medicine practised in India, viz, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Amchi and local health traditions, utilize a large number of plants that are commonly used as tonics, antimalarials, antipyretics, aphrodisiacs, expectorants, hepatoprotectives, antirheumatics, diuretics etc, an attempt has also been made to enumerates some of these plants/ drugs used for the alleviation of some common ailments with special emphasis on Rasayana drugs. 1. HERBAL DRUGS-CURRENT SCENARIO Use of herbal medicines is wide spread in developing as well as developed countries. The use of plant-based health products was also increased in other European countries 1. Export–Import Bank reports reveal that the global trade of plant-derived and plant originated products is around US 60 billion (with growth of 7% per annum) where India holds stake of US 1 billion 2, 3 which is expected to reach 3 trillion US by the end of 2015. World Health Organization (WHO) has made an attempt to identify all medicinal plants used globally and listed more than 20, 000 species. NAPRALERT database documents ethnomedicinal uses alone for 9200 of 33000 species of monocots, dicots, gymnosperms, pteridophytes, bryophytes and lichens, which would suggest that 28 % of plants on earth have been used ethnomedicinally 4. India is also considered as one of the potential exporting countries of medicinal plants. India has 2. 4% of world's area with 8% of global biodiversity. It is one of the 12 megadiversity hot-spot regions of the world, other countries being Brazil, Colombia, China, South Africa, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia, Ecuador, Peru, USA and Bolivia. Across the country, the forests of India are estimated to harbour 90% of India's medicinal plants diversity in the wide range of forest types that occur. Only about 10% of the known medicinal plants of India are restricted to non-forest habitats. According to a report 5, one fifth of all the plants found in India are used for medicinal purpose. Fig. 1 shows the estimated domestic demand of the top 20 medicinal plants of India 6. Utilizing the healing properties of plants is an integral part of all traditional practices. People in all continents have long used hundreds, of indigenous plants for treatment of various ailments dating back to prehistory. There is evidence that suggests Neanderthals living 60, 000 years ago 7. These plants are still widely used in ethnomedicine around the world. Indian Herbal Drug for General Healthcare: An Overview