Public Health
The term pharmacognosy derived from Greek, pharmakon, a drug, and gignosco, to acquire knowledge of. Pharmacogonasy is mainly concerned with naturally occurring substances having a medicinal action. It also includes the study of other material used in pharmacy such as flavouring and suspending agents, disintegrants, filtering and support media and so on. It is closely related to both botany and plant chemistry.
Pharmacognosy has been generally pursued for utilitarian ends and may thus be called an applied science. It has played an important role in the development of the pure sciences, e.g.…
Some of the plants used in traditional medicine of India exhibit anticancer activity. Could it be proved using modern day technologies if it is true.
Scientific Name Ajuga bracteosa Wall. ex Benth.
Family Labiatae
Used Part Leaves
Distribution Area A diffusely branched, aromatic annual, distrubuted from Kashmir to Nepal at an altitude of 2,000 m. It is also found in the sub-Himalayan tract, plains of Punjab and the upper Gangetic plain.
Common Uses. A bitter astringent given in the treatment of…
is reported to cure hypertension, angina and chloesterolaemia.
Scientific Name Boerhaavia diffusa L.
Family Nyctaginaceae
Used Part Dried stem
Distribution Area A prostrate herb, occurring as a weed throughout India, up to an altitude of 2,000 m in the Himalayas.
Common Uses . B. diffusa is the source of the Ayurvedic drug, Punarnava . An ayurvedic drug is reported to cure hypertension, angina and chloesterolaemia. The whole plant, fresh or dried, is the source of the drug punarnava which is offical in I.P. as a…
Some of the other plants which are used in folk medicine are as follows :-
1. Abrus precatorius Linn.‘karjari’ ( Fabaceae ) :- In Kundi (Surguja) of Madhya Pradesh, the tribal people use the decocation prepared from fresh pods (50 gm.) three times daily in abortion .
2. Acacia catechu Willd. ‘khair’ ( Mimosaceae ) :- In Madhopur ( Raigarh ) of Madhya Pradesh the tribal people used, the heartwood is for making ‘kattha’ ; the later is used as a dye . The wood is also used as fire and timber (Maheshwari, Painuli, Diwivedi, 1997 ) . In Bihar , Santhal tribes make a paste of root and apply…
Scientific Name Eclipta prostrata (Linn.) Linn. syn. E. erecta Linn. Syn Eclipta alba(Linn.)Hassk.
Family Asteraceae
Used Part Whole plant
Distribution Area Throughout India, at all elevations in waste places and on road sides.
Common Uses . Bhringrajah is acrid, bitter, hot and dry, reduces kapha and vata and is a good rejuvinator. It is good for the hair and skin, expels intestinal worms,cures cough and asthama and strengthens body. It is good for blackening and strengthening of the hair, for stopping haemorrhages and fluexes and or strengthening the…
Cassia senna var. senna shows considerable morphological
variations though the cytogenetical studies of C. acutifolia and C. angustifolia exhibit very close relationship.
The method of drying affects the percentage of sennosides in the leaflets: sun-drying sennosides, 2.98; moisture, 70.60%; and oven-drying (40°± 2°) sennosides, 3.03; moisture, 72.80%.
Arabian samples of senna have been found mixed with stems, midribs, dirt and the leaflets and pods of Cassia auriculata and C. holosericia…
Scientific Name Cassia sena Linn
( C. senna Linn. var. senna syn. C. acutifolia Delile; C. angustifolia Vahl; C. obovata Baker
Family Fabaceae (Caesalpiniaceae)
Used Part Leaves
Distribution Area
Common Uses . The SENNA is a well-known drug in the Unani system
of medicine and has been included in the I.P., U.S.P., B.P., J.P., etc. as a purgative. The drug from India is known as TINNEVELLY SENNA and that from Arabian countries is…
Scientific Name Oscimum tenuiflorum Linn (= O.sanctum Linn)
Family Lamiaceae
Used Part Dried stem.
Distribution Area, Found throughout India ascending up to 1,800 m. in the Himalayas, and in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Common Uses . Tulsi is aromatic,carminative,antipyretic, diaphoretic and expectorant. Leaves, flowers and occationally the whole plant are used in medicine. Leaf juice is domestic remedy for infantile cough, cold, bronchitis, catarrah, dysentery and diarrhoea. Infusion of leaves is given in malaria as a stomachic in gastric diseases of children and in hepatic affections. It…
Ginseng
Araliaceae
Panax pseudoginseng Wall. Family Araliaceae is a very rare 30-60 cm tall erect herb distributed in the interior temperate mountainous regions of Sikkim, Bhutan, Nepal and China, recorded in the Western Himalayas from Pithoragarh district in Uttar Pradesh.
The root of Asian ginseng contains active chemical components called ginsenosides (or panaxosides) that are thought to be responsible for the herb's medicinal properties. The root is…
Scientific Name Tinospora cordifolia (Willd.) Miers.
Family Menispermaceae
Used Part Stem
Distribution Area A large, glabrous, deciduous climbing shrub found
throughout tropical India, ascending to an altitude of 300m.
Common Uses . T. cordifolia is mentioned in Ayurvedic literature as a
constituent of several compound preparations, used in general debility, dyspepsia, fevers and urinary diseases. An application prepared from the plant is used by the tribals in Bihar for fractures..
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