ADVANCED PHARMACOGNOSTICAL STUDIES ON SELECTED HERBS USEFUL IN THE TREATMENT OF UROLITHIASIS

Abstract

Nature has been a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years and an newlineimpressive number of modern drugs have been isolated from natural sources. The plantbased, newlinetraditional medicine systems continue to play an essential role in health care, with newlineabout 80% of the world s inhabitants relying mainly on traditional medicines for their newlineprimary health care. Herbal drugs constitute a major part in all traditional systems of newlinemedicines; it is a triumph of popular therapeutic diversity. Plants above all other agents have newlinebeen used as medicine from time immemorial. newlineIn the recent past there had been a tremendous increase in the use of plant based newlinehealth products in developing as well as developed countries resulting in an exponential newlinegrowth of herbal products globally. Herbal medicines have a strong traditional or conceptual newlinebase and the potential to be useful as drugs in terms of safety and effectiveness for treating newlinedifferent diseases. In recent times there has been a marked shift towards herbal cures because newlineof the pronounced cumulative and irreversible reactions of modern drugs. However, due to newlineover population, urbanization and continuous exploitation of the herbal reserves, the natural newlineresources along with their related traditional knowledge are depleting day by day. newlineIn the present era of drug development and discovery of newer drug molecules many newlineplant products are evaluated on the basis of their traditional uses. In this study three newlinetherapeutically important medicinal plants have been selected for the evaluation towards newlinepharmacognostical, physicochemical, phytochemical and their pharmacological activity newlinerelated to antiurolithiasis. newlineAchyranthes aspera Linn. (AA) belonging to the family Amaranthaceae, is an newlineimportant medicinal herb found as a weed throughout India. Though almost all of its parts are newlineused in traditional systems of medicines, seeds, roots and shoots are the most important parts newlinewhich are used medicinally. newlineMoringa oleifera Lam.