An evaluation of phytochemical constituents of sweet flag (Acorus calamus), a Unani herbal medicine

Abstract

Phytochemicals are bioactive compounds obtained from plants and are widely applied in the traditional Unani herbal Medicine. Herbal medicine is a practice that includes herbs, herbal material, and preparations that contain parts of plants or combinations thereof as active ingredients. These herbs are derived from plant parts such as leaves, bark, flowers, roots, fruits, and seeds. The importance of plants is well known to us. The plant kingdom is a treasure house of potential drugs and in the recent years there has been an increasing awareness about the importance of medicinal plants. Drugs from the plants are easily available, less expensive, safe, and efficient and rarely have side effects. The plants which have been selected for medicinal use over thousands of years constitute the most obvious choice of examining the current search for therapeutically effective new drugs such as anticancer drugs, antimicrobial drugs, antihepatotoxic compounds. According to World Health Organization (WHO), Medicinal plants would be the best source to obtain variety of drugs. About 80% of individuals from developed countries use traditional medicines, which have compounds derived from medicinal plants. The various phytochemicals found in sweet flag, Unani medicine such as Tannins, Saponins, Flavonoids, diterpenes and minerals such as Carbonate, Nitrate, Phosphate, Ammonium listed in table1, 2 and 3. It was concluded that the herbal medicine SWEET FLAG extraction is rich in Phytochemicals and biochemical & minerals with medicinal properties.