INTRODUCTION:

There is a renewed global interest in traditional medicines and the plants are one of the most important sources of these medicines. The important advantages claimed for therapeutic uses of medicinal plants in various ailments are their safety besides being economical, effective and their easy availability.^1,2 Because of these advantages the medicinal plants have been widely used by the traditional medical practitioners in their day to day practice.

Emesis is defined as the vigorous expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. It may result from many causes, ranging from gastritis or poisoning to brain tumors, or elevated intracranial pressure. Vomiting can be dangerous if the gastric content gets into the respiratory tract. Under normal circumstances the gag reflex and coughing will prevent this from occurring, however these protective reflexes are compromised in persons under the influences of certain substances such as alcohol or anesthesia. The individual may choke and asphyxiate or suffer aspiration pneumonia. The drugs which are used for the treatment and prevention of emesis are known as anti-emetics.^{3, 4} In the present work, the data on several Ethanomedicinal plants have been collected from various sources of literature, which are enumerated in Table 1. These plants are still used traditionally as herbal drugs for the prevention and treatment of emesis.

NOTEWORTHY CONTRIBUTIONS IN ANTI-EMETIC ACTIVITY OF NATURAL CONSTITUENTS:

Flavonoids isolated from Alpinia officinarum showed antiemetic activity in a copper sulfate induced emesis assay in young chicks.⁸

Two novel diarylheptanoids named katsumadain A and katsumadain B were isolated from the seeds of Alpinia katsumadai, and their structures were determined by spectroscopic analysis. Both katsumadains A and B showed anti-emetic activities on copper sulfate-induced emesis in young chicks.⁹

Aqueous and methanolic extract of G. lasiodiscus root and its fractions have anti-emetic properties, which provide for the first time the rationale for its application in traditional medicine especially in the management of emesis.¹⁰

Marijuana was reported as antiemetic drug by Richard and Co-workers.¹¹

CHEMICAL STRUCTURES OF PLANT CONSTITUENTS

TABLE 1. MEDICINAL PLANTS HAVING ANTIEMETIC ACTIVITY ^5-7

S. N.	Botanical Name With Vernacular Name	Family	Part used	Chemical Constituents
1	Abutilon. Indicum (Kanghi)	Malvaceae	Bark	Abutillin
2	Achillea millefolium (Biranjasipha)	Compositae	Herb	Achillein and achilleic acid
3	Allium tuberosum (Lahasun)	Amaryllidaceae	Bulb	Trihydroxyspirostane
4	Amomum krervanh (Krishna Jeera)	Zingiberaceae	Fruits	Catechin - DPPH - epicatechin
5	Annona. Squamosa.linn (Sharifa)	Annonaceae	Fruit	Chloroplatinate, Anonaine Alkaloid
6	Arundo phragmites (Cotton whitefly)	Poaceae	Stem	Tricin flavone C-glycosides
7	Atractylodes japonica (Anjani)	Compositae	Rhizome	Hydroquinones
8	Atractylodes lancea (Gurmar)	Asteraceae	Root	5-Lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase-1
9	Averrhoa.carambola (Kamrakh)	Oxalidaceae	Fruit	Volatile oils
10	Ballota nigra (Shalmali)	Lamiaceae	Whole plant	Polyphenols, Phenylpropanoid, Mangiferin,
11	Bixa.orellana.linn (Sinduriya)	Bixaceae	Plant	Z-E Farnenyl Acetate, Occidentalo Acetate,
12	Blighia sapida (Ackee)	Sapindaceae	Leaf, bark	Hypoglycin A and B
13	Brassica.compestris. (Sarson)	Cruciferae	Seed	Arabinan, Rhamnogalacturonan
14	Calendula officinalis (Zergul)	Asteraceae	Florets	Taraxasterol
15	Carum carvi (Syahjeera)	Apiaceae	Seed	Menthol
16	Cetraria islandica (Charila)	Parmeliaceae	Fruit	Alpha-methylene-gamma-lactone
17	Cinnamomum verum (Dalchini)	Lauraceae	Fruit	Eugenol, benzyl benzoate
18	Citrus aurantifolia (Kagaji)	Rutaceae	Fruit	Curcumin, acetoxychavicol acetate
19	Citrus reticulata (Santara)	Rutaceae	Fruit	5, 4′-dihydroxy-6, 7, 8, 3′-tetramethoxy flavone
20	Curcuma petiolata (Tavakhira)	Zingiberaceae	Rhizome	Germacrone
21	Eruca.sativa.gars (Arugula)	Cruciferae	Seed	Carboxylase, Taramira,
22	Fagonia.cretica.linn (Zarnab)	Zygophyllaceae	Leaves	Cytosolic Copper
23	Ferronia.elephantum (Kaitha)	Rutaceae	Fruit	Carboxy Methylated α (1-4)Polygala-Cturonan
24	Hemerocallis fulva (Orange Daylily)	Hemerocallidaceae	Flower	Kwanzoquinones, 2-hydroxychrysophanol
25	Hibiscus.abelurosclua (Musk plant)	Malvaceae	Seed	Glutathione, tannins
26	Mesua.ferrea (Nagapushpa)	Guttiferae	Leaves	1-5,Dihydroxy Xanthone, B-Sitosterol
27	Murraya.koenigii (Mitha nim)	Rutaceae	Leaves	Carbazoles & Carbazoleguiaones,
28	Ocimum gratissimum (Ram tulsi)	Lamiaceae	Whole plant	Ocimum oil
29	Ouratea.angustifolia (Vahl)	Ochhaceae	Root	Gallocatechin
30	Panax quinquefolium (Gurmar)	Araliaceae	Root	Ginsenosides, polyacetylenic alcohols
31	Pavonia.ododrata (Sugandhabala)	Malvaceae	All parts	Sodium L. Malate
32	Phragmites australis (Narkhat)	Poaceae	Stem	Iso butyarate , propionate
33	Phyllostachys nigra (Pecha)	Poaceae	Bark	Chlorogenic acid, Caffeic acid,
34	Pinellia ternata (Crow-dipper)	Araceae	Root	Adenosine, guanosine, phenylalanine
35	Portulaca.oleracea (Lunia)	Portulacaceae	Leaves	Fructase, Oleracein, Lesperidin, Caffeic Acid
36	Prunella vulgaris ( Ustakhadus)	Lamiaceae	Plant	Stigmasterol
37	Pueraria thunbergiana (Barali kund)	Fabaceae	Plant	β-hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl
38	Sanguinaria canadensis (Arusa)	Papaveraceae	Root	Sanguinarine, Chelerythrine and Protopine

TABLE 2. HERBAL MARKETED PREPARATIONS CLAIMING ANTIEMETICS¹²

S.N.

Brand Names

Ingredients

Mfd./Mkt. by

Cordig

(Tablet)

Panchalavan 30mg, Triphala 30mg, Trikatu 20mg, Jeeraka 20mg, Sharapunkha 20mg, Pippalimoola 10mg, Vidanga 10mg, Bhringaraja 10mg, Ela 10mg, Talisapatra 10mg, Tejpatra 10mg, Shankha bhasma 10mg, Nimboo satwa 0.5mg

Ajmera

Vomiteb

(Tablet/ Syrup)

Karpura twak 720mg, Mala 80mg, Chandana 40mg, Nimbu twak 40mg, Pippali 10mg, Teja 10mg, Ela 10mg, Karpura 225mg, Suta Shekhara rasa 25mg, Lavanga 5mg

Charak

CONCLUSION:

It can be concluded that present work is precious to find out natural products that may serve as lead for the improvement of new pharmaceuticals addressing the major therapeutic needs for the treatment of emesis.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

Yogesh Shivhare,the author, thankfully acknowledges to Mr. Rakesh Punekar, Head and Vice-Principal, RKDF College of Pharmacy, Bhopal (M.P.), in preparation of this manuscript.

REFERENCES

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2. Siddiqui HH. Safety of herbal drugs-an overview. Drugs News & Views. 1(2); 1993: 7–10.

3. Hornby PJ. Central neurocircuitry associated with emesis. Am J Med. 2001: 111-106.

4. Ray Andrew P, Chebolu Seetha, Ramirez Juan, Darmani Nissar A. Ablation of Least Shrew Central Neurokinin NK1 Receptors Reduces GR73632-Induced Vomiting. Behavioural Neuroscience. 123 (3); 2009: 701-706.

5. Kirtikar KR, Basu BD. Indian Medicinal Plant. 1976: Vol. I to IV, 2nd ed, M/s Bishwas Singh, Nirali prakasan, Dehradun.

6. Chaterjee Asima, Pakrashi Satyesh Chandra. The Treatise of Indian Medicinal Plants. 2003: Vol.5, 137.

7. Williamson Elizabeth M. Major herbs of Ayurveda. Churchill livingstone. 2002.

8. Diatetsu Shin, Kaoru Kinoshita, Kiyotaka Koyama, Kunio Takahashi. Antiemetic Principles of Alpinia Officinarum. J. Nat. Prod. 65 (9); 2002: 1315-1318.

9. Ye yang, Kaoki Kinoshita, Kiyotaka Koyama, Kunio Takahashi, Takaaki Tai, Yeshiki Monovra & Kazuo Watanabe. Two novel antiemetic principles of Alpinia katsumadai. J. Nat Prod. 62(12); 1999: 1672-1674.

10. Tijani AY, Okhale SE, Oga FE, Tags SZ, Salawv OA, Chindo BA. Antiemetic activity of Grewia Lasio discus root extract and fractions. African Journal of biotech. 7(17); 2008: 3011-3016.

11. Richard H Schwartz, Roy A Bevertidge. Marijuana as an antiemetic drug. Journal of Addictive Disesases.13(1); 1994: 53-65.

12. Arora Sakshi and Bajaj Sandhya. Advance Drug Review. Lucknow. 2007.

Received on 19.08.2011 Accepted on 25.08.2011

Asian J. Pharm. Tech. 1(3): July-Sept. 2011; Page 82-84