A review of Mazu and its medicinal uses in Unani medicine

Abstract

A Gall is an abnormal growth of plant tissue produced by animal agency acting from within. 1. Any organ of the plant may become the seat of this hyperplasia, but the form which the gall ultimately assumes is governed by the potentialities of growth in the part attacked, and by the nature of the animal excitation present. Oak galls (Mazu) is an out growths formed on the young twigs of the dyer's oak, Quercus infectoria (Fagaceae), as a result of the deposition of the eggs of the gall-wasp, this is used for medicinal purposes before escape of insects in dried form as described by classical Unani literature. Keeping in view of the medicinal properties described in ancient Unani scholars and scientific research on various medicinal properties of oak galls (Mazu), this paper an attempt to correlate the properties of Mazu with latest scientific research.