Therapeutic potential of medicinal plants: A review

Abstract

Plants have been well documented for their medicinal uses for thousands of years and traditional medicines are still a major part of habitual treatments of different maladies in different parts of the world. In recent years, there has been growing interest in alternative therapies and the therapeutic use of natural products, especially those derived from plants. Plants are considered as one of the main sources of biologically active materials. Phyto-chemical screening of medicinal plants has contributed a great deal for the discovery of new drugs. A number of medicinal plants have been subjected to detailed chemical investigations and this has led to the isolation of pure bioactive molecules which have been pharmacologically evaluated. As a result, new drugs have been discovered, along with new applications.