Pharmacognostic Comparison of Bacopa Monnieri, Cyperus Rotundus & Emblica Officinalis (original) (raw)
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PHARMACOGNOSTIC COMPARISON OF BACOPA MONNIERI, CYPERUS ROTUNDUS, AND EMBLICA OFFICINALIS
In the last few decades, a curious thing has happened to Herbal medicines. Instead of being killed off by medical science and pharmaceutical chemistry, it has made come back. Herbal medicine has benefited from the objective analysis of the medical science, while fanciful and emotional claims for herbal cures have been thrown out, herbal treatments and plant medicine that works have been acknowledge. Moreover, herbal medicine has been found to have impressive credentials. Developed empirically by trial and error, many herbal treatments were nevertheless remarkably effective. In a recent survey estimated that 39% of all 520 new approved drugs in 1983-1994 were natural products or derived from natural products and 60-80% of antibacterial and anticancer drugs were derived from natural products. Medicinal plants play an important role in the development of potent therapeutic agents. Plant-derived drugs came into use in the modern medicine through the uses of plant material as an indigenous cure in folklore or traditional systems of medicine. Bacopa monnieri, Cyperus rotundus, and Emblica officinalis (Brahmi, Nagarmotha, Amla) have several chemical compounds have been isolated from these herbs which are useful in treating number of diseases such as diarrhea, vomiting, indigestion, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, hair growth, hair wash, antioxidant, anticonvulsant, analgesic, anti-allergic, antifungal, cardiac depressant, and cardio-tonic. These reported therapeutic activities are due to the presence of phytochemicals present in these Herbs. Even Ayurveda has recognizes the nutritional elements derived from foods and Rasayanas which help to optimize the availability of " essential nutrients " in the body.
The demand for herbal raw material has increased tremendously due to renewed interest in plant-based medicines, especially in developed countries. This has led to the indiscriminate cutting and collection of medicinal plants from natural resources resulting in depletion of natural resources and in some cases extinction of species. In the recent past, aseptically grown raw material and cell cultures have received recognition as an alternative source for the production of herbal raw material and chemical constituents. A low concentration of therapeutically important chemical constituents, which is directly related to the efficacy of the plant, was the major limitation in the commercial application of aseptically grown raw material and cell cultures. Due to this limitation, the acceptance of aseptically regenerated plants in the world of herbal medicines and Ayurvedic products was not very encouraging. In the present investigation, we have not only established the protocol for aseptic ...
The purpose of this article is to study and to verify the therapeutic effects and margin of safety of traditional medicines used by the tribal community for treating various diseases as described in ancient literature found in our country. Herbs have been important contributors to the quality of human life for thousands of years. Herbal medicine is the oldest and most widely used form of medicine in the world today. Throughout history plants have served humankind as valuable components of seasonings, teas, cosmetics, dyes, and medicines. Medicinal plants have a traditionally important position in the socio-cultural, spiritual, and medicinal arena of rural and tribal lives throughout the world; India is rich in indigenous herbal resources due to its diverse climatic and soil conditions and multiple ecological regions. In Himalayan region of India, more than 2000 medicinal plant species exist. Although medicinal plants have been used since long, their scientific substantiation has recently been initiated. Looking into the steady expansion in the global population and prevalence of various diseases, such studies are the need of time to ensure availability of drugs in sustainable manner from natural sources for future generations. Based on the therapeutic and commercial importance of medicinal plants, the Cyperus rotundus has been undertaken to evaluate various ethnopharmacological parameters, as it has been used by number of tribal communities in Central part and Southern part of India. According to the WHO estimates about 80% of the of the world's population (mostly in developing countries) rely on traditional medicine, almost plant-based drugs, for their primary healthcare needs. Plants products also play an important role in the health-care systems of the remaining 20% of the population residing in developed countries. Currently, at least 122 phytoconstituents, derived from 94 plant species, can be considered as important drugs that are in use in one or more countries as therapeutic agents.
Herbal Medicine Today: Clinical and Research Issues
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2007
Herbal medicine is the use of medicinal plants for prevention and treatment of diseases: it ranges from traditional and popular medicines of every country to the use of standardized and tritated herbal extracts. Generally cultural rootedness enduring and widespread use in a Traditional Medical System may indicate safety, but not efficacy of treatments, especially in herbal medicine where tradition is almost completely based on remedies containing active principles at very low and ultra low concentrations, or relying on magical-energetic principles. In the age of globalization and of the so-called 'plate world', assessing the 'transferability' of treatments between different cultures is not a relevant goal for clinical research, while are the assessment of efficacy and safety that should be based on the regular patterns of mainstream clinical medicine. The other black box of herbal-based treatments is the lack of definite and complete information about the composition of extracts. Herbal derived remedies need a powerful and deep assessment of their pharmacological qualities and safety that actually can be realized by new biologic technologies like pharmacogenomic, metabolomic and microarray methology. Because of the large and growing use of natural derived substances in all over the world, it is not wise to rely also on the tradition or supposed millenarian beliefs; explanatory and pragmatic studies are useful and should be considered complementary in the acquisition of reliable data both for health caregiver and patients.
Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2007
BacoMind is an enriched phytochemical composition derived from Bacopa monnieri, a common medicinal plant having multiple uses in the traditional system of medicine and particularly used as a memory enhancing agent for centuries. The plant and its extracts have been evaluated for anti-inflammatory, cardio tonic, sedative and neuro-muscular blocking activities. In view of the extensive use of this plant, BacoMind , standardized to bioactive compounds was evaluated in a series of toxicity studies, to confirm the safety of its usage. BacoMind , on single oral administration had a median lethal dose of 2,400 mg/kg in Sprague-Dawley rats. In a 14 day repeated dose oral toxicity study in rats, except for mild lowering in body weight gain in male rats, it was found to be tolerated well up to the dose of 500 mg/kg. A subchronic oral toxicity study for 90 days in rats at the dose levels of 85, 210 and 500 mg/kg did not reveal any evidence of toxicity with respect to clinical signs, neurological examination, food consumption, body weight gain, haematological and blood biochemistry parameters. The absolute and relative organ weight of vital organs did not differ significantly from that of the control. Necropsy and histopathological examination, did not reveal any remarkable and treatment related changes. A no-observed adverse effect level of 500 mg/kg body weight was established in rats.
Phytochemical and Preclinical Screening of Aseptically Produced Herbal Raw Material: Bacopa monnieri
Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Science and Biotechnology, 2008
The demand for herbal raw material has increased tremendously due to renewed interest in plant-based medicines, especially in developed countries. This has led to the indiscriminate cutting and collection of medicinal plants from natural resources resulting in depletion of natural resources and in some cases extinction of species. In the recent past, aseptically grown raw material and cell cultures have received recognition as an alternative source for the production of herbal raw material and chemical constituents. A low concentration of therapeutically important chemical constituents, which is directly related to the efficacy of the plant, was the major limitation in the commercial application of aseptically grown raw material and cell cultures. Due to this limitation, the acceptance of aseptically regenerated plants in the world of herbal medicines and Ayurvedic products was not very encouraging. In the present investigation, we have not only established the protocol for aseptic culture of Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell, but also checked the aseptically grown material for its chemical constituents and efficacy through established bioassay models. Assessment of the presence of major phytochemicals and in vitro preclinical bioassays indicated that aseptically grown shoots can be a better source of raw material. This can stop further depletion of the species from nature and also provide a consistent quality raw material. Aseptically grown improved quality shoots can also be good quality planting material for standardized cultivation practice.
International Journal of Membrane Science and Technology
Humans have relied on herbal medicines in health care and the treatment of numerous diseases since the very early stages of civilization. Herbal medicines or phytomedicines not only treat sickness but also guard against its complications simultaneously. The continuous use of synthetic medications is not safe for health because of their extreme negative impacts. So now a days, we can estimate that in some developing countries, such as the USA and England, herbal drugs make up to 25% of all consumption; on the other hand, in a few nations that are rapidly developing, like India and China, it comprises up to 80%. All over the world, more than ten thousand medicinal species are present. India is a well known producer of herbal plants that have a history of being used medicinally. As per the data of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), there are 50000-80000 types of flowering plants that have medicinal value globally. Because...
Importance of pharmacognostic study of medicinal plants: An overview
The present review discusses the need and emphasizes the importance of pharmacognostic study of medicinal plants. This study is important and lays down parameters for standardization and authentication of medicinal plants with the help of which adulteration and substitution can be prevented. All the parameters to be evaluated in pharmacognostic study such as organoleptic characters, macroscopic study, microscopic study, powder study, physico chemical analysis (moisture content, loss on drying, ash values, extractive values), phytochemical analysis, fluorescence analysis are enlisted along with their importance. In the end 55 plants whose pharmacognostic studies have been done are listed along with their family and part evaluated for pharmacognostic study. 1. Introduction Now-a-days there is a renewed interest in drugs of natural origin simply because they are considered as green medicine and green medicine is always supposed to be safe. Another factor which emphasizes this attention is the incidences of harmful nature of synthetic drugs which are regarded as harmful to human beings and environment. The advantage of natural drugs is their easy availability, economic and less or no side effects but the disadvantage is that they are the victims of adulteration. The more effective the natural drug more is its demand and the chances of non-availability increases. To meet the growing demand, the natural drug is easily adulterated with low grade material. Adulteration or substitution is nothing but replacement of original plant with another plant material or intentionally adding any foreign substance to increase the weight or potency of the product or to decrease its cost. Therapeutic efficacy of medicinal plants depends upon the quality and quantity of chemical constituents. The misuse of herbal medicine or natural products starts with wrong identification. The most common error is one common vernacular name is given to two or more entirely different species [1]. All these problems can be solved by pharmacognostic studies of medicinal plants. It is very important and in fact essential to lay down pharmacognostic specifications of medicinal plants which are used in various drugs. Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines derived from natural sources, mainly from plants. It basically deals with standardization, authentication and study of natural drugs. Most of the research in pharmacognosy has been done in identifying controversial species of plants, authentication of commonly used traditional medicinal plants through morphological, phytochemical and physicochemical analysis. The importance of pharmacognosy has been widely felt in recent times. Unlike taxonomic identification, pharmacognostic study includes parameters which help in identifying adulteration in dry powder form also. This is again necessary because once the plant is dried and made into powder form, it loses its morphological identity and easily prone to adulteration. Pharmacognostic studies ensures plant identity, lays down standardization parameters which will help and prevents adulterations. Such studies will help in authentication of the plants and ensures reproducible quality of herbal products which will lead to safety and efficacy of natural products. The pharmacognostic standardization parameters which are generally done are described below.