Herbal Medicine In India

1643 Words7 Pages
Herbal Medicine is defined as a branch of science in which plant based therapies are used to cure diseases. Herbal medicine was supposed to be primary healthcare system in the early twentieth century as at that time antibiotics or analgesics were not discovered. But herbal medicine gradually lose its popularity (Singh, 2007), with the advent of allopathic system of medicine, based on the quick and sharp therapeutic actions of synthetic drugs. Now there has been revert in universal trend from synthetic to herbal medicine, which can be said “Return to Nature”. Medicinal plants have been known for millennia and are highly esteemed all over the world as a rich source of therapeutic agents for the prevention of diseases and cure of ailments (Sharma…show more content…
India was found to be one of the 12-mega biodiversity centers having about 10% of the world’s plant biodiversity wealth, distributed across 16 agro-climatic zones (Shiva, 1996). In India around 20,000 medicinal plant species were recorded previously (Dev, 1997), but more than 500 traditional communities use only about 800 plant species for treating/curing different diseases (Kamboj, 2000). With a view to support the medicinal plants sector all over the country as well as to conserve the wild stock, the NMPB (National Medicinal Plants Board) was set up in 2000 by the Government of India. The prime objective of NMPB was to establish an agency which would be responsible for coordination of all matters related to the area of medicinal plants, and also responsible to draw up policies and make strategies for in situ conservation, cultivation, harvesting, marketing, processing, drug development, etc. (Kala and Sajwan,…show more content…
A relatively small percentage (1 to 10%) of these species was found to be used as foods by both humans and other animal species and also found to be used for medicinal purposes (Moerman, 1996). Application of medicinal plants and their products for the treatment of various human health issues were documented and this record was available in Rigveda (3500 to 1600 B.C.) and Atharva Veda (1200 B.C) (Parasad et al., 2002). Various researches has been done to know the different antimicrobial and bioactive constituents of medicinal plants which can help in the treatment of microbial infections as possible alternatives as many infectious microorganisms become resistant to chemically synthesized drugs. During the last deade, the stride (pace) of development of new antimicrobial drugs has slowed down while the vogue (prevalence) of resistance (especially multiple) has increased astronomically (Hugo and Russell, 1984). Literature and ethnobotanical records suggested that plants were found to be the sleeping giants of pharmaceutical industry (Hostettmann and Hamburger, 1991). They may provide natural source of antimicrobial drugs that will/or provide novel or lead compounds that can be used in controlling various infections globally. Many researchers have worked towards the medicinal strength of different parts of plants and their chemical compounds (Onyeagba et al., 2004) like; anti microbial,

More about Herbal Medicine In India

Open Document