Parwiz Niazi and Abdul Wahid Monib

Worldwide, diverse tribal communities living in remote areas rely on plants for sustenance, including edible and medicinal parts. Traditional medicine, constituting 40% of healthcare globally, heavily relies on plant-based remedies, comprising 85% of traditional medicines. Indigenous communities have utilized medicinal plants for centuries, treating various common ailments based on longstanding beliefs and observations. These indigenous groups possess extensive knowledge of approximately 6,500 Southeast Asian plants used in traditional healing. The pharmaceutical industry has documented tribal plants and their traditional medicinal uses, exploiting their antimicrobial properties and potential for developing safe anti-cancer and antibiological drugs. With over 50,000 identified medicinal plant species worldwide. While ancient literature recorded the use of medicinal plants, organized research in this field started in 1956 due to declining plant populations and loss of traditional knowledge. 
Medicinal plants also called Herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional therapeutic practices since prehistoric times. Herbal plants play an important role in preventing and treating of human diseases. Plants produce thousands of chemical substances like phytochemicals for various functions including defense protection against bacteria, fungi, virus, insects and herbivorous mammals. However, plants are considered as the potential source for the development of new herbal drugs. Medicinal plants are widely used in non-industrialized societies because they are cheaper and lesser side effects than modern medicine. The annual global export value of the thousands of types of plants with medicinal properties was estimated to about US60$ billion per year and it is growing at the rate of 6% per annum. In many countries, there is little regulation of traditional medicine, but the World Health Organization coordinates a network to encourage safe and rational usage. Therefore, the aim of present review is to understand the knowledge of the medicinal plants as a future source of herbal drugs.
 

DOI: 10.22271/phyto.2024.v13.i2d.14905

Pages: 643-647  |  687 Views  221 Downloads