Antiasthmatic Potential of Some Medicinal Plants

Despite progress made in modern medical science herbal drugs constitute a major share of all the officially recognized systems of health in India viz. Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy and Naturopathy. More than 70% of India’s 1.1 billion populations still use these non-allopathic systems of medicine. Asthma severity is the intrinsic intensity of the disease process and dictates which step to initiate treatment. Asthma is a most common chronic inflammatory syndrome characterized by airway narrowing, recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing, particularly at night and awaking in the morning. Ayurveda and other Indian literature mention the use of plants in various human ailments. Researchers conducted in the last few decades on the plants mentioned in ancient literature or used traditionally for anti-asthmatic activity. This article reveals that some plants and their extract have anti-asthmatic activity, which are helpful for researcher to develop new herbal formulations. In the recent years, interest in drugs of plant origin has been progressively increased.