In the present review, an attempt has been made to congregate the botanical, phytochemical, ethnomedicinal, pharmacological and toxicological information on Ocimum sanctum Linn. (OS, Tulsi), a medicinal herb used in the indigenous system of medicine. OS has been adored in almost all ancient ayurvedic texts for its extraordinary medicinal properties. It is pungent and bitter in taste and hot, li...

BACKGROUND This study focuses on the large outdoor markets of the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo. As the largest metropolitan area in Madagascar with a population of nearly two million, the region has great capacity for consumption of medicinal plant remedies despite numerous pharmacies. Medicinal plant use spans all socioeconomic levels, and the diverse metropolitan population allows us t...

OBJECTIVES Loranthus ferrugineus (L. ferrugineus) from Loranthaceae, a mistletoe, is a medicinal herb used for a variety of human ailments. Traditionally, decoctions of this parasitic shrub have been mainly used to treat high blood pressure (BP) and gastrointestinal complaints; usage which is supported by experimental based pharmacological investigations. Nonetheless, there is still limited dat...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and associates with multiple risk factors. Herb medicines have been used to treat CVD long ago in china and several natural products or derivatives (e.g., aspirin and reserpine) are most common drugs all over the world. The objective of this work was to construct a systematic database for drug discovery based on natural produ...

Wedelia chinensis is a small much branched annual herb, commonly known as “pilabhamgara” or “bhringraj” in Hindi. Wedelia in Chinese, “pitabhrnga” in Sanskrit [1]. The fresh juice from the leaves of Wedelia chinensis has been used by ayurvedic physicians in India for external use to treat skin problems, dermatitis, eczema and acne [2]. The leaves are regarded as tonic and alternative, useful in...

What is herbal therapy? Herbs are plants that contain ingredients with active therapeutic properties. These active ingredients may be present in the whole plant or only in a specific part. Other parts of the same plant, or other plants in the same genus may have no activity or may in fact be toxic. An herb may be used in various forms, including teas, granular extracts (Chinese medicine), fresh...

Chaihu (Radix bupleuri, Chinese thorowax root) is a favorite medicinal herb in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and is used as a key ingredient herb for many Chinese multiherb remedies. There are 40 species of the Bupleurum grown wide in china, while only two of them, the dried roots of Bupleurum Chinese DC., known in commerce as ‘Bei chaihu’ (Northern Chinese Thorowax Root) and the dried roo...

Herb Kalanchoe pinnata is grown as weeds in the tropical countries like India. It has a wide range of active constituents which has potent medicinal properties. The main objective was to overview the total antioxidant capacity of the herb Kalanchoe pinnata. Antioxidant activities were evaluated in terms of total phenolics content, total antioxidant activity, and reducing power. Different studie...

Serum pharmacological method has generally been used in herb studies. However, preparation of test serum for ex vivo experiment is an intricate process: besides pretreatment (heat or chemicals), it involves the proteolytic cascades of coagulation along with fibrinolysis, complement and kinin systems, as well as platelet and leukocyte activation resulting in release reactions. These processes de...

BACKGROUND The goal of our study was to evaluate the effects of different medicinal herbs rich in polyphenol (Lemon balm, Sage, St. John's wort and Small-flowered Willowherb) used as dietary supplements on bioaccumulation of some essential metals (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) in different chicken meats (liver, legs and breast). RESULTS In different type of chicken meats (liver, legs and breast) from ch...