ABSTRACT:
Ayurvedic medicines mainly based on plants enjoy a respective position today, especially in the developing countries, where modern health services are limited. Safe effective and inexpensive indigenous remedies are gaining popularity among the people of both urban and rural areas especially in India and China. Information from ethnic groups or indigenous traditional medicines has played vital role in the discovery of novel products from plants as chemotherapeutic agents. Herbal medicines have been main source of primary healthcare in all over the world. From ancient times, plants have been catering as rich source of effective and safe medicines. About 80 % of world populations are still dependent on traditional medicines. Herbal medicines are finished, labeled medicinal products that contain as active ingredients, aerial or underground part of plants or other plant materials, or combination thereof, whether in the crude state or as plant preparations. Medicines containing plant materials combined with chemically defined active substances, including chemically defined isolated constituents of plants are not considered to be herbal medicines. In India, around 15000 medicinal plants have been recorded however traditional communities are using only 7,000-7,500 plants for curing different diseases. The medicinal plants are listed in various indigenous systems such as Siddha (600), Ayurveda (700), Amchi (600), Unani (700) and Allopathy (30) plant species for different ailments. According to another estimate 17,000 species of medicinal plants have been recorded out of which, nearly 3,000 species are used in medicinal field. Chemical principles from natural sources have become much simpler and have contributed significantly to the development of new drugs from medicinal plants. The valuable medicinal properties of different plants are due to presence of several constituents i.e. saponins, tannins, alkaloids, alkenyl phenols, glycol-alkaloids, flavonoids, sesquiterpenes lactones, terpenoids and phorbol esters. Four thousand years ago, the medical knowledge of the Indian subcontinent was termed as Ayurveda. Ayurveda remains an important system of medicine and drug therapy in India. Plant alkaloidsare the primary active ingredients of Ayurvedic drugs. Today the pharmacologically active ingredients of many Ayurvedic medicines are being identified and their usefulness in drug therapy being determined. As mentioned in the introduction only a certain percentage of plants are used in traditional medicines. The Indian subcontinent is a vast repository of medicinal plants that are used in traditional medical treatments.