10. Ethnomedicinal plants as anti- inflammatory and analgesic agents

The use of traditional medicine is expanding to newer horizons and plants still remain as the novel source of structurally important compounds that lead to the development of innovative drugs. India has about 45,000 plant species among which medicinal property has been attributed to several thousands. The traditional Indian system of medicine, the Ayurveda, mentions the use of plants in the treatment of various diseased conditions. Ethnobotanical research done in last few decades have revealed the anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties of plants cited in the traditional literature. Many herbal preparations are being prescribed as anti-inflammatory and analgesic in the traditional literature. The search for new anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents from the huge array of medicinal plant resources is intensifying. This is because such taxa may hold assurance for the discovery of novel therapeutic agents capable of suppressing, reducing or relieving pain as well as inflammation. This chapter reviews such plant species and their products that have shown experimental or clinical anti-inflammatory or analgesic activities, Correspondence/Reprint request: Dr. M. Anilkumar, Department of Botany, Union Christian College, Aluva Ernakulam683 102, Kerala, India. Email: [email protected]