indian medicinal plants as a source of therapeutic - BRT Publishers

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Int. J Bioscience Res. December 2012 Issue 1 Vol. 1 transmitted to man through the anopheles mosquito. It is one of the major fatal diseases in the world, especially in the tropics and is endemic in some 102 countries with more than half of the world population at risk and the control of malaria is complex because of the appearance of drug resistant strains of Plasmodium and with the discovering that man may become infested with species of simian (monkey) malaria. The use of plant-derived drugs for the treatment of malaria has a long and successful tradition. For example, quinine isolated from Cinchona officinalis and quinghaosu from Artemisia annua represent the potential value of investigating traditionally used antimalarial plants for developing pharmaceutical antimalarial drugs (Srisilam and Veersham 2003). The declining efficacy of classical medication in relation to rapid extension of Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine-resistant strains has led to a need for new and efficient antimalarial drugs (Sanon et al., 2003). Malaria is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the developing countries like India and has a great impact on the socio-economic development of the individual households in various ways. Repellents have an important place in protecting man from the bites of insect’s pests and mosquitoes (Kalyanasundaram 1991; Sukumar et al., 1991) and smoke produced by the burning of some herbs such as Artemisia and Azadirachta indica has been used for the protection against mosquitoes and biting insects since ancient times. Planting of plant species like Azadirachta indica, Annona squamosa, Artemisia vulgaris, Cymbopogon citratus, Lantana camara, Ocimum sanctum and Vitex peduncularis nearby the houses or settlement areas is another traditional method of controlling mosquito borne malaria still in practice by the local community in northeast India and polishing of house floor with leaf plant extracts obtained mainly from the species of Azadirachta, Artemisia, Lantana, Ocimum, and Cymbopogon is routinely done to drive away mosquitoes and other insect’s flies as common tradition among the community members of rural tribal people (Namsa et al., 2011). Anti-HIV activity AIDS is a pandemic immunosuppresive disease which results in life-threatening opportunistic infections and malignancies. Much research effort has focused on the prevention and therapy of this infection resulting in AIDS, and despite considerable progress being made; still no vaccine that prevents infection or therapy that cures the disease and eliminates all infectious particles is yet available. In addition to biotechnological techniques, molecular modelling, etc., exploitation of natural resources to find new lead compounds against HIV is still a valuable approach (Cos et al., 2008). A vast number of natural products from medicinal plants such as terpenoids, coumarins, alkaloids, polyphenols, tannins and flavonoids have been shown to possess anti-HIV activity. Some of these natural products such as betulinic acid, calanolide A, (-) Epigallocatechin galloate, Glycyrrhizin, Andrographolide, Polycitone A and Geraniin were already entered clinical trials (Hupfeld and Efferth 2009). Sabde et al. (2011) reported that, of the 92 extracts prepared from 23 Indian medicinal plants tested for anti-HIV activity in a human CD4+ T-cell line, CEM-GFP cells infected with HIV-1NL4.3, the results showed 9 extracts of 8 different plants significantly reduced viral production in CEM-GFP cells infected with HIV- 1NL4.3. Anuya et al. (2010) reported that Tinospora cordifolia, Avicennia officinalis, Rhizophora mucaranata and Ocimum sanctum showed anti-HIV potential and inhibiting the virus by two different mechanisms such as interference with the gp 120/CD4 interaction and inhibition of reverse transcriptase (RT). Mohanraj et al. (2010) reported that, the leaf crude extract of Calotropis procera was showed activity against HIV virus. 8
Int. J Bioscience Res. December 2012 Issue 1 Vol. 1 Indian Medicinal Plants in Trade The industrial demand for the medicinal plant resources has been on the rise due to the worldwide buoyancy in the herbal sector engaged in production of herbal health care formulations; herbal based cosmetic products and herbal nutritional supplements. In India, nearly 9,500 registered herbal industries and a multitude of unregistered cottage-level herbal units depend upon the continuous supply of medicinal plants for manufacture of herbal medical formulations based on Indian Systems of Medicine. In addition to the industrial consumption, significant quantities of medicinal plant resources are consumed in the country under its traditional health care practices at the household level by traditional healers and by practitioners of Indian Systems of Medicine. Although there are around 8000 medicinal plant species used by different communities in India across different ecosystems, only around 10 % of them are in active trade. More than 1200 raw drug entities originating from more than 880 plant species have been recorded in active trade in India. The medical system wise representation (Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Tibetan, Folk, Homeopathy and Modern) of these 880 species of Indian medicinal plants is another interesting point to note. Majority of these plants (82%) are used in Ayurveda system of medicine while the lowest share (7%) is by modern system; similarly Siddha accounts for 58%, Unani for 53%, Homeopathy for 16% and Tibetan medice for 25% (Begum and Ved 2004). Around 90% of the medicinal plants used by the Indian Pharmacies today are collected from the wild/natural sources. Less than 20 species of plants are under commercial cultivation and many of these have their uses for other purposes like perfumary/ condiments/ spices. Apart from requirement of medicinal plants for internal consumption, India is one of the major exporters of crude drugs mainly to the six developed countries, viz. USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, UK and Japan who share between them 75 - 80% of the total export of crude drugs from India. The principal herbal drugs that have been finding a good market in foreign countries are Abrus precatorius, Aconitum heterophyllum, Acorus calamus, Adhatoda zeylanica, Aegle marmelos, Aloe vera, Alpinia calcarata, Ammi majus, Andrographis paniculata, Asparagus racemosus, Atropa belladona, Bacopa monnieri, Cinchona officinalis, Cassia angustifolis, Cassia tora, Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium, Curculigo orchioides, Dioscorea sps., Digitalis purpurea, Ephedra gerardiana, Hyoscyamus niger, Kaempferia galanga, Picrorhiza kurroa, Plantago ovata, Podophyllum hexandrum, Rauwolfia serpentina, Saraca asoca, Nardostachys jatamansi, Terminalia chebula, Terminalia bellirica, Tribulus terrestris, Tylophora indica, Withania somnifera, etc. CONCLUDING REMARKS Research on medicinal plants and the search for plant-derived drugs require a multidisciplinary approach with integrated projects, financial and technical support, and a very carefully planned strategy. Renewed interest in traditional pharmacopoeias has meant that researchers are concerned not only with determining the scientific rationale for the plant’s usage, but also with the discovery of novel compounds of pharmaceutical value (Fennell et al., 2004). Instead of trying to identify the active components of herbs through massive collection of plants from natural sources, it is better to start investigating the efficacy of the natural product from the traditional use by patients in randomized clinical trials. There is still much we can learn from investigating herbals available abundantly in the forests particularly those which are less well known. This type of research must be promoted as a means for developing countries to understand the potential use of their plant resources, as well as a means to better promote basic healthcare. 9
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