Vol. 1, Issue 5 (2012)

Author(s):
T. Susan Srujana*, Konduri Raveendra Babu, Bodavula Samba Siva Rao

Abstract:
Before onset of synthetic era, man was completely dependent on medicinal plants for prevention and treatment of diseases. Medicinal plants, herbs, spices and their remedies are known to ayurveda in India since long times. The value of medicinal plants, herbs and spices as herbal remedies is being lost due to lack of awareness and deforestation. Hence as a result, many valuable medicinal herbs are becoming rare and thus the precious information is lost. Of the estimated 500,000 plants on our planet, it is thought that around 10,000 are regularly used for medicinal purposes. Significant proportions of these herbs have been well researched and the most are excellent for home use. The medicinal plants find application in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agricultural and food industry. The use of the medicinal herbs for curing disease has been documented in history of all civilizations. The Indian system of herbal medicine has been regarded by many of the western scholars. It has been said that Indian herbal medicine is a rich mine of knowledge from which many useful things might be unearthed. The earliest mention of the medicinal use of plants is to be found in the Rig-Veda, which is one of the oldest repositories of human knowledge, having written between 4500 and 1600 BC. Even in late as the 1930s, around 90% of medicines prescribed by doctors are sold over the counters were herbal medicines. The major pharmaceutical companies now a days have realized that rainforest; grasslands and even had growers and fields are sources of potentially invaluable medicines. As a result they are investing large sums of money to try to find new plant chemicals that can be marketed as medicines.