Recent Progress on Chemical Composition and Bioactivities of Bacopa monnieri (Linn.) a Plant of Ayurveda

Bacopa monnieri (Linn.) is a highly regarded medicinal plant in Indian traditional Ayurvedic medicine for centuries owing to its broad spectrum bioactivities. The biological effects of B. monnieri are documented in traditional as well as scientific literature. The plant possess many important bioactivities like memory enhancing, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, hepatoprotective, sedative, antiepileptic and still many more are constantly being discovered. An ample amount of research on B. monnieri and its major constituents has unraveled its tremendous bioactive potential in the treatment of many serious disorders viz. Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive functions, memory impairment, hepatic carcinoma and cigarette smoking-associated diseases. Since 2005, when the last review on B. monnieri was written, many more new bioactivities have been discovered, although they have not been compiled in one publication. In the present article we describe many new useful bioactivities of B. monnieri and its active chemical constituent bacoside and new chemical constituents that have been isolated and characterized. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________