Medicinal Plants
Throughout history, humans have depended on nature for basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, transportation, fertilisers, flavours, fragrances, and medicines. Both traditional and modern medicine rely heavily on plants. The popularity of medicinal plants can be attributed to a number of factors, including cost and a lack of access to western medicine. If you are passionate about understanding plant science and building a career in this field, choosing the right academic institution is essential. If you are in search of the best msc botany college in Jaipur, Rajasthan , you can explore reputed institutes that offer structured programs, experienced faculty, and practical laboratory exposure to help you build a strong foundation in botanical sciences.
Nature has provided medicinal agents for thousands of years. Herbal remedies can be used in virtually every culture and folk medicine. The majority of traditional drugs used in healthcare are derived from plants. Plants remain one of the most essential raw materials for medicines to treat various human diseases, despite many developments in synthetic drug chemistry and antibiotics.
A medicinal plant is one that produces chemicals or chemo-pharmaceutical synthesis precursors that can be used for therapeutic purposes. Plants have long been used to treat a wide range of ailments, including diarrhoea, fever, and colds, as well as birth control and dental hygiene. Medicinal plants that have been used in the past have a wide range of known therapeutic properties.
Herbal medicine is a key source of health care in many developing countries. The widespread use of herbal medicines and health care preparations, such as those described in ancient texts such as the Vedas and obtained from commonly used traditional herbs and medicinal plants, has been attributed to the prevalence of natural products with medicinal properties. The use of a combination of natural products to treat diseases has yielded some impressive results, especially when it comes to the synergistic effects and poly pharmacological use of plant extracts.
Plant Secondary Metabolites
Plants contain a diverse range of organic compounds, the vast majority of which do not appear to be essential for growth and development. Secondary metabolites are a term that has been used in the past to refer to these compounds.
Secondary metabolites are derived biosynthetically from primary metabolites, which contain a wide range of active compounds. In the plant kingdom, they have a narrower range of distribution. The quality and quantity of a particular plant species growing in different locations varies. They are synthesised by various cell types at different stages of growth and are mostly accumulated in smaller quantities.
Secondary metabolites, a wide class of chemicals that includes alkaloids, glycosides, amines, insecticides, hormones, flavonoids, and other compounds, are abundant in medicinal plants and have long been used in medicine and pharmaceuticals.
In healthy plants, many plant secondary metabolites are constitutive and work in biologically active forms, while others exist as inactive precursors that are activated in response to tissue damage or pathogen attack. The therapeutic properties of plant materials are typically attributed to a combination of secondary products present in the plant, such as alkaloids, hormones, tannins, flavonoids, resins, and so on.
Terpenoids, along with 16,000 alkaloids and 8,182 flavonoids, make up 33,000 of the total number of secondary metabolites mentioned in the dictionary of natural products. Since they are an important component of basic metabolism and are frequently involved in plant defences against biotic and abiotic stresses, they play an ecological role.
Flavonoids, for example, are involved in plant reproduction as well as cell pigmentation in flowers and seeds, which attract pollinators and seed dispersers. Plant secondary metabolites also have medicinal properties that can help people’s wellbeing.
SECONDARY METABOLITES BIOACTIVITY
1. Antioxidant Activity
Antioxidants have been shown to protect against oxidative damage caused by free radicals. Protective mechanisms that scavenge and stabilise free radicals protect all species from free radical attack.
When the rate of free radical formation meets the rate of free radical scavenging and stabilisation, oxidative stress occurs, which is a harmful process that destroys cell structures including lipids, proteins, and DNA.
Many antioxidant-based drug formulations are used to prevent and treat diseases whose pathologies involve oxidative stress. Owing to the carcinogenicity of synthetic antioxidants, there has been an increase in interest in seeking naturally occurring antioxidants to replace synthetic antioxidants in foods, cosmetics, and medicinal products.
Some people believe that the abundance of medicinal plants containing natural antioxidants can aid the body in neutralising free radicals.
2. Antibacterial Activity
A molecule’s antibacterial or antiviral activity is entirely dependent on chemicals that selectively kill bacteria and viruses or halt their growth without being hazardous to adjacent tissue.
Antimicrobial agents can be classed as either bactericidal (killing bacteria) or bacteriostatic (slowing the growth of germs). Antibacterial drugs are crucial in the fight against infectious diseases. However, due to their widespread use and abuse, bacterial resistance to antibacterial drugs has emerged as a major issue for today’s pharmaceutical industry.
The most significant feature of medical textiles is antibacterial activity, which ensures effective protection against germs, biological fluids, and aerosols, as well as disease transmission.
Many therapeutic drugs have been generated by pharmaceutical enterprises in the last two or three decades for the treatment of diseases caused by bacteria. However, these bacteria have developed genetic resistance to many of these drugs.
Several traditional herbs such as Abutilon indicum, Acacia leucophloea, Azadirachta indica, Calotropis procera, Cynodon dactylon, Jatropha gossypifolia, Mangifera indica, Saraca asoca, Tinospora cordifolia, and others have shown antibacterial activity against various gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria such as Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mutans, and others.
Conclusion
Modern medications have shown great success in curing various diseases; however, some also produce adverse effects on the human body. Additionally, microorganisms develop genetic adaptations that reduce the effectiveness of many drugs.
Therefore, herbal and natural medicines have been used for many years as safer alternatives. These medicinal plants possess resistance to infections and can be used to treat a variety of illnesses.
Higher plants employ alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, and other bioactive compounds as defence mechanisms and to preserve their biological activity.
Blog By:
Dr. Anita Mishra
Assistant Professor,
Department of Science,
Biyani Girls College,Jaipur