Pharmacology

The importance of plants is known to us well.  The plant kingdom is a treasure house of potential drugs and in the recent years there has been an increasing awareness about the importance of medicinal plants. Drugs from the plants are easily available, less expensive, safe, and efficient and rarely have side effects. The plants which have been selected for medicinal use over thousands of years constitute the most obvious choice of examining the current search for therapeutically effective new drugs such as anticancer drugs antimicrobial drugs anti hepatotoxic compounds.

 

According to World Health Organization (WHO), medicinal plants would be the best source to obtain variety of drugs. About 80% of individuals from developed countries use traditional medicines, which has compounds derived from medicinal plants. However, such plants should be investigated to better understand their properties, safety, and efficiency.  Medicinal plants contain some organic compounds which provide definite physiological action on the human body and these bioactive substances include tannins, alkaloids, carbohydrates, terpenoids, steroids and flavonoids. These compounds are synthesized by primary or rather secondary metabolism of living organisms. Secondary metabolites are chemically and taxonomically extremely diverse compounds with obscure function. They are widely used in the human therapy, veterinary, agriculture, scientific research and countless other areas.