CHAPTER - I

INTRODUCTION
 Chapter I

1.0 INRODUCTION

1.1 General Introduction to Herbal Medicine

The primary needs of every human being are food, cloth, shelter, health and

education. Among them, health is of paramount importance because without

health man cannot achieve the other requirements. A well known adage says

“Health is wealth”.

The origin of diseases is multidimensional in nature. Human beings

constantly struggle against the changing environmental conditions to maintain

optimum health and vigor throughout their lives. The human body depends on the

hormonious interaction between internal and external factors continuously for its

good health. When this balance is disturbed it leads to disharmony and disease.

Therefore, it is essential to diagnose the causes of inappropriate imbalance which

may be the real factor.

A disease can be compared through various remedial measures like

Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Allopathy, Unani are some such measures.

Herbs have been credited with outstanding qualities and properties from times

immemorial like pain relieving and healing abilities. No wonder that the modern

medicine too relives on the curative properties of the plants. Some of these

medical practices may seem to be strange or magical; some seem to be rational

and sensible. But considering the end product or goal of these medicines, they

have been used and are being used to overcome illness, suffering and to enhance

the quality of an individual.

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Nature is the best combinatorial chemist and possibly has answers to all

diseases of mankind. Natural products, including plants, animals and minerals

have been the basis of treatment of human diseases (Jachak and Saklani, 2007).

Till now, natural product compounds discovered from medicinal plants (and

their analogues thereof) have provided numerous clinically useful drugs. (Jachak

and Saklani, 2007).

The current accepted modern medicine or allopathay has gradually developed

over the years by scientific and observational efforts of scientists (Patwardha et

al., 2004). However, traditional medicine and therapies remain as source of future

medicine and therapeutics to identify new drugs or remedy for new emerging

diseases (Patwardha et al., 2004). Even as modes of medicine changed throughout

centuries, plants continued to be the mainstay of country medicine as methods and

ideas on plant healing were passed down from family to family, and within

communities. Thus tribes, clans, villages, towns and some countries, tended to

have similar styles in healing (Jachak and Saklani, 2007).

1.2 Origin of herbal medicine in India

India enjoys the privilege of having time tested traditional systems of

medicine based on the natural products. India’s traditional system of treatment is

mainly AYURVEDA meaning “science of life”. The word ayurveda is composed

of two words “Ayu” meaning life and “Veda” meaning knowledge or science

(Manjunadar, 1989).

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For over 3000 years Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of living has

addressed itself to the fundamental principles of good health and longevity. It has

developed a tradition of medicine and a system of treatment based on the inherent

ability of the human to rejuvenate, to heal and to restore its natural balance. It

seeks to strengthen and to enhance the body’s own healing process to help the

body help itself (Kapoor, 1990). Ayurveda which involves dispensing of herbal

and plant products in various forms such as powders, extracts, decoctions etc.

dates back to Vedic period, where the first mention of diseases and drugs is found

in Rigveda and Yajurveda (i.e. around 200B.C) and the earliest comprehensive

description of ayurveda is available in Atharvanaveda (i.e 1600-100B.C), which

contains classification of diseases and references to herbal medicine (Kapoor,

1990). Till the medieval period it was perhaps the only system available in the

Indian subcontinent to carter the health care requirement of the people and their

rulers. This can be considered as the golden period of Ayurveda because most of

the work related to basic concepts, renunciation of different principles, and

evolvement of different formulations occurred during this period. The patronage

for the ayurvedic system of medicine considerably decreased during the medieval

period which was marked by unsettled political conditions in the country and

series of invasion by foreigners and during British rule importance is given to the

allopathy. In the early part of 20th century interest in ayurveda rekindle as part of

national freedom movement. People’s representatives even in British India and

princely states started asking for suitable measures to develop ayurveda on

scientific lines (Ravishankar and Shukla, 2007).

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1.3 Global Scenario in Standardization of Herbal Drugs

Traditional systems of medicine continue to be widely practiced on many

accounts. Population rise, inadequate supply of drugs, prohibitive cost of

treatments, side effects of several allopathic drugs and development of resistance

to currently used drugs for infectious diseases (Kumar and Jayaveera, 2014) have

led to increased emphasis on the use of plant materials as a source of medicines

for a wide variety of human ailments. Global estimates indicate that 80% of about

population cannot afford the products of the western Pharmaceutical Industry and

have to rely upon the use of traditional medicines, which are mainly derived from

plant material. This fact is well documented in the inventory of medicinal plants,

listing over 20,000 species (Schippmann et al., 2006). In spite of the

overwhelming influences and our dependence on modern medicine and

tremendous advances in synthetic drug, a large segment of the world population

still likes drug from plants. In many of the developing countries the use of plant

drugs is increasing because modern life saving drugs are beyond the reach of three

quarters of the third world’s population although many such countries spend 40-

50% of their total wealth on drugs and health care. As a part of the strategy to

reduce the financial burden on developing countries, it is obvious that an

increased use of plant drug will be followed in the future (Joy et al., 1998).

Hence, the research has been sparked in part by a resolution passed by the

World Health Organization (WHO) in 1978, this resolution adopted the contents

of a report commissioned by WHO which noted that for all people to have

adequate health, sources other than western technological medicine would have to

be used. The report concluded with the recommendation that traditional forms of

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medicine be pursued to meet the emerging needs of a burgeoning world

population. The World Health Organization also has recognized the importance of

traditional medicine and has been active in creating strategies, guidelines and

standards for botanical medicine (Patwardhan et al., 2004).

1.4 Biological Background of Herbal Drugs

It is estimated that around 2,50,000 flowering plant species are reported to

occur globally. Approximately half (1,25,000 flowering plant species) of these

are found in the tropical forests. They continue to provide natural product

chemist with invaluable compounds for finding new compounds is enormous as

till date only about 1 % of tropical species been studied for their pharmaceutical

potential (Jachak and Saklani, 2007)

All plants produce chemical compounds as a part of their normal metabolic

activities these can be split into two broad categories primary metabolites, which

include (sugars, fats and amino acids) and secondary metabolites, which are much

more specialized substances with a wide variety of functions in the organisms that

make them. Primary metabolites are found in all plants, but secondary ones in a

much narrower range, some only in a particular genus or species. The function of

secondary metabolites are extremely varied, with some functioning as toxins,

some to attract insects, and some with more esoteric functions. It is these

secondary metabolites which can have therapeutic actions in humans, and which

can be refined to produce drugs. Inulin from the roots of dahlias, quinine from the

cinchona, morphine and codeine from the poppy and digoxin from the foxglove

are all such examples (Rakesh and Rajesh, 2006).

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Many of the pharmaceuticals currently available have a long history of use as

herbal remedies such as opium, aspirin, digitalis and quinine. While purification

and quantification of these plant extracts makes them more predictable and

chemical processing can sometimes modify their effects in desirable ways, herbal

remedies tend to have a more complex and subtle mix of chemicals, and can

sometimes offer access to drugs, or combinations of drugs, that the

pharmaceutical industry has not yet exploited. (Rakesh and Rajesh, 2006).

1.5 Future Direction and Scope

The herbal scenario in the 21st century is marked by stiff competition amongst

pharmaceutical industries. Such competition is prompted by the fact that herbal

drugs are user-friendly due to their natural origin and lesser side effects (Rakesh

and Rajesh, 2006).

The wide spread use of herbs in traditional medicine has also prompted

demands that herbal remedies be regulated as drugs to ensure quality standards

and to prove its scientific basis. Clinical trials on any herb that has health claim on

its label should be conducted but medical testing, which is geared toward

observing a particular active component, is difficult to apply to herbs, which may

have many interacting ingredients. Debate over botanical’s validity and safety as

medicines and over the appropriate degree of government regulation continues.

However, the real challenge lies in translating the therapeutic recommendations

into effective interventions of these medicinal plants (Rakesh and Rajesh, 2006).

In spite of several biological activities being shown by the different herbal

extracts, only a small percentage of the diverse plant resources have been

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investigated so far. If large scale screening of these herbal extracts is done by

developing efficient and reliable assay systems, then many of them may prove to

be very efficient.

With the advent of biotechnology, the unfolding of the human genome and

the various tools of bioinformatics, new frontiers in the treatment of diseases like

personalized medicine will open up and this will provide new scope and

opportunities for the growth of herbal industry (Rakesh and Rajesh, 2006).

After analyzing the above aspects, the author has considered ethno

pharmacological,environmental and biological aspects for the selection of aerial

parts of Avicennia alba a mangrove plant to evaluate the phytochemical and

pharmacological (In-vitro antioxidant, Antidiabetic, Anticancer) studies.

Much work has been carried out on Avicennia marina and Avicennia

officinalis toward their constituents in producing compounds of medicinal

importance but medicinal properties of Avicennia alba not studied much

particularly about their potential effect of antidiabetic and anticancer. Keeping in

view of the above statement the present investigation proposed to study the

Avicennia alba a mangrove plant to evaluate phytochemical and pharmaceutical

studies.

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