Introduction of medicinal plants

Medicinal plants have been playing an essential role in the development of human culture. As a source
of medicine, Medicinal plants have always been at forefront virtually all cultures of civilizations.
Medicinal plants are regarded as rich resources of traditional medicines and from these plants many of
the modern medicines are produced. For thousands of years medicinal plants have been used to treat
health disorders, to add flavor and conserve food and to prevent diseases epidemics. The secondary
metabolites produced by the plants are usually responsible for the biological characteristics of plant
species used throughout the world. The microbial growth in diverse situations is controlled by plant
derived products. In this review we gave general overview of the medicinal plants.
Human beings have depended on nature for their simple requirements as being the sources for
medicines, shelters, food stuffs, fragrances, clothing, flavours, fertilizers and means of transportation
throughout the ages. For the large proportions of world’s population medicinal plants continue to
show a dominant role in the healthcare system and this is mainly true in developing countries, where
herbal medicine has continuous history of long use. The development and recognition of medicinal
and The traditional medicine practice is widespread in China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and
Thailand. About 40% of the total medicinal consumption is attributed to traditional tribal medicines
alone by China. In Thailand, herbal medicines make use of legumes encountered in the
Caesalpiniaceae, the Fabaceae, and the Mimosaceae. It is estimated that in mid-90s, more than
US$2.5 billion have resulted from the sales of herbal medicines. The herbal medicinal preparations
are more in demand than mainstream pharmaceutical products in Japan.inancial aids of these plants
are on rise in both In some countries, the use of medicinal plants is often associated with witchcraft
and superstition, because people do not have the scientific insight to explain and predict the curative
action of plants. Modern searches for bioactive molecules typically make use of sophisticated
bioassays and bioassay-guided fractionation of medicinal plants used by traditional healers. This has
led to the isolation of several new therapeutically important compounds. A good number of potent
drugs and a large number of therapeutic leads and many new pharmacologically active constituents
have been developed from herbal drugs due to the dedicated efforts of researchers [8]. The
manufacture of morphine on industrial scale by E. Merck, Germany in 1826 marks the beginning of
commercialization of plant-derived drugs [9]. Nearly half of the top selling pharmaceuticals in 1991
were either natural products or their derivatives [10] . Distribution of medicinal plants The
distribution analysis of the medicinal plants shows that they are distributed across diverse habitats and
landscape elements. Nearly about 70% of the medicinal plants in India are found in tropical forests in
Eastern and western Ghats, Chota Nagpur plateau, Aravalis, Vindhyas and the Himalayas. Among the
Himalayas, Kashmir Himalayan region is nestled within the Northwestern folds of the recently
designated global biodiversity hotspot of the Himalayas [11] . It is an integral but geologically
younger part of main Himalayan range. Floristic wealth of this region includes a fairly good
representation of medicinal plants. Kaul [12] has listed 111 medicinal plants from Kashmir and
Ladakh. He has also mentioned in his book about healing properties of 291 species of medicinal
plants from these regions. The medicinal flora of Kashmir, however, has not been paid due attention
and Kashmir alone may have at least two times this number. Some of the most important medicinal
plants of Kashmir Himalaya include Dioscorea deltoidea, Rheum Emodi, Arnebia benthamii, Inula
racemosa, Datura stramonium Aconitum heterophyllum,, Artemisia spp., Podophylum hexandrum,
Juniperus macropoda, Hypercum perforatum, Hyoscyamus niger, Sassurea spp., and Picrorhiza kurroa
etc., growing in abundance in areas like Yusmarg, PirPanjal, Sonamarg, Gurez, Lolab valley,
Gulmarg, Khilanmarg, Pahalgam and Tilail valley. Besides there is a number of aromatic and
medicinal plant species grown in different high-altitude regions of Kashmir Valley. The important
aromatic plant species include Caraway (Carum cervi), Saffron (Crocus sativus), Siya zira (Bunium
persicum), Garlic (Allium sativa), Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), Mint (Mentha spp.), Fennel
(Foeniculum vulgare) and Hare’s foot (Trigonella foenum-graecum). Many of these plants are used in
standardized plant extracts. One example of such an irrational concept is the Doctrine of Signatures,
elements of which are found in many of the healing cultures of the world (Boehme, 1982). It is based
on the assumption that the appearance of plants may give clues to their medicinal properties—it is
 interpreted as God’s signature on the plant. Red juice and sap, for example, is associated with blood
and menstrual ailments; yellow flowers with bile and jaundice; the human shape of certain roots with
the female form of fertility and so on. Sometimes this concept however, worked: Chelidonium majus,
contains yellow flowers and a yellow alkaloid containing latex, and has been used successfully to treat
jaundice (Gurib-Fakim, 2006). i1.2 Traditional medicine Plants have been utilized as medicines for
thousands of years (Samuelsson, 2004). These medicines initially took the form of crude drugs such
as tinctures, teas, poultices, powders, and other herbal formulations (Balick and Cox, 1997;
Samuelsson, 2004). The specific plants to be used and the methods of application for particular
ailments were passed down through oral tradition. Eventually information regarding medicinal plants
was recorded in herbal phamacopoeias (Balunas, 2005).
Traditional medicine

Modern allopathic medicine has its roots in ancient medicine, and it is likely that many important new
remedies will be discovered and commercialized in the future, as it has been till now, by following the
leads provided by traditional knowledge and experiences. While European traditions are particularly
well known and have had a strong influence on modern western pharmacognosy, almost all societies
have well-established herbal traditions, some of which have hardly been studied at all. The study of
these traditions will not only provide an insight into how the field has developed but it is also a
fascinating example of our ability to develop a diversity of cultural practices. In some countries, the use
of medicinal plants is often associated with witchcraft and superstition, because people do not have the
scientific insight to explain and predict the curative action of plants. One example of such an irrational
concept is the Doctrine of Signatures, elements of which are found in many of the healing cultures of
the world (Boehme, 1982). It is based on the assumption that the appearance of plants may give clues to
their medicinal properties—it is interpreted as God’s signature on the plant. Red juice and sap, for
example, is associated with blood and menstrual ailments; yellow flowers with bile and jaundice; the
human shape of certain roots with the female form of fertility and so on. Sometimes this concept
however, worked: Chelidonium majus, contains yellow flowers and a yellow alkaloid containing latex,
Even today, plants are not only indispensable in health care, but form the best hope of source for safe
future medicines [5] . In spite of the fact that now we have at our command a number of modern drugs,
it is still genuinely urgent to discover and develop new therapeutic agents. It has been estimated that the
acceptable therapy is available only for one third of the known human ailments. Therefore, the fight
against diseases must be carried on relentlessly. Traditional plant medicines still enjoy significant
position in the modern-day drug industries due to the minor side effects as well as the synergistic action
of the combination of compounds. Most of the important drugs of the past 50 years, which have
revolutionized modern medicinal practice, have been isolated/derivatized from plants. These chemical
ingredients exhibit therapeutic properties of plant and animal drugs. The WHO endorses and promotes
the addition of herbal drugs in national health care programs because they are easily accessible at a
price within the reach of a common man and are time tested and thus considered to be much safer than
the modern synthetic drugs [6]. Thus, the research of pharmacologically/ biologically active agents
obtained by screening natural sources such as plant extracts had led to the detection of many
pharmaceutically valuable drugs that play a key role in the treatment of human diseases [7]. The
phytochemical-pharmacological research work has recently yielded effective solutions to certain
diseases which synthetic drug industry has failed to afford. The most important among them are the
research work on Artimisia annua, Cathranthus roseus, Taxus spp., Lantana camara and Baccopa spp.
etc. Such plants were earlier considered as poisonous or useless, but now have been found to contain
molecules of high drug values and are considered as medicinal herbs of great significance. and has been
used successfully to treat jaundice (Gurib-Fakim, 2006).
Future prospects of Medicinal Plants
There is a promising future of medicinal plants as there are about half million plants around the
world, and most of them are not investigated yet for their medical activities and their hidden
potential of medical activities could be decisive in the treatment of present and future studies [13] .

In the development of human culture medicinal plants have played an essential role, for example
religions and different ceremonies [14] . Among the variety of modern medicines, many of them are
produced indirectly from medicinal plants, for example aspirin. Many food crops have medicinal
effects, for example garlic. Studying medicinal plants helps to understand plant toxicity and protect
human and animals from natural poisons. The medicinal effects of plants are due to secondary
metabolite production of the plants. Keeping this in consideration there have been increased waves of
interest in the field of research in natural product chemistry .This interest can be due to several
factors, including therapeutic needs, the remarkable diversity of both chemical structure and
biological activities of naturally occurring secondary metabolites, the utility of novel bioactive natural
compounds as biochemical probes, the development of novel and sensitive techniques to detect
biologically active natural products, improved techniques to isolate, purify, and structurally
characterize these active constituents, and advances in solving the demand for supply of complex
natural products.
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