2. Historical Background of Medicinal
Plants
• Healing with medicinal plants is as old as
mankind itself.
• Awareness of medicinal plants usage is a
result of the many years of struggles against
illnesses due to which man learned to pursue
drugs in barks, seeds, fruit bodies, and other
parts of the plants.
3. • The oldest written evidence of medicinal
plants’ usage for preparation of drugs has
been found on a Sumerian clay slab from
Nagpur, approximately 5000 years old. It
comprised 12 recipes for drug preparation
referring to over 250 various plants, some of
them alkaloid such as poppy, henbane, and
mandrake.
4. • The Chinese book on roots and grasses “Pen
T’Sao,” written by Emperor Shen Nung circa
2500 BC, treats 365 drugs (dried parts of
medicinal plants), many of which are used
even nowadays such as the following: Rhei
rhisoma, camphor, Theae folium,
Podophyllum, the great yellow gentian,
ginseng, jimson weed, cinnamon bark, and
ephedra.
5. • The Indian holy books Vedas mention treatment
with plants, which are abundant in that country.
Numerous spice plants used even today originate
from India: nutmeg, pepper, clove, etc.
• The Ebers Papyrus, written circa 1550 BC,
represents a collection of 800 proscriptions
referring to 700 plant species and drugs used for
therapy such as pomegranate, castor oil plant,
aloe, senna, garlic, onion, fig, willow, coriander,
juniper, common centaury, etc.
6. • The works of Hippocrates (459–370 BC) contain
300 medicinal plants classified by physiological
action: Wormwood and common centaury
(Centaurium umbellatum Gilib) were applied
against fever; garlic against intestine parasites;
opium, henbane, deadly nightshade, and
mandrake were used as narcotics; fragrant
hellebore and haselwort as emetics; sea onion,
celery, parsley, asparagus, and garlic as diuretics;
oak and pomegranate as adstringents.
7. • In ancient history, the most prominent writer on plant
drugs was Dioscorides, “the father of pharmacognosy,”
studied medicinal plants wherever he travelled.
• Circa 77 AD he wrote the work “De Materia Medica.”
This classical work of ancient history, translated many
times, offers plenty of data on the medicinal plants
constituting the basic materia medica until the late
Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
• The renowned medical writer Celsus (25 BC–50 AD)
quoted approximately 250 medicinal plants such as
aloe, henbane, flax, poppy, pepper, cinnamon, the star
gentian, cardamom, false hellebore, etc.
8. • In the Middle Ages, the skills of healing,
cultivation of medicinal plants, and
preparation of drugs moved to monasteries.
Therapy was based on 16 medicinal plants,
which the physicians-monks commonly grew
within the monasteries as follows: sage, anise,
mint, Greek seed, savory, tansy, etc.
9. • Early 19th century was a turning point in the
knowledge and use of medicinal plants. The
discovery, substantiation, and isolation of
alkaloids from poppy (1806), ipecacuanha (1817),
strychnos (1817), quinine (1820), pomegranate
(1878), and other plants, then the isolation of
glycosides, marked the beginning of scientific
pharmacy.
• With the upgrading of the chemical methods,
other active substances from medicinal plants
were also discovered such as tannins,
saponosides, etheric oils, vitamins, hormones,
etc.
10. • On account of chemical, physiological, and
clinical studies, numerous forgotten plants
and drugs obtained thereof were restored to
pharmacy: Aconitum, Punica granatum,
Hyosciamus, Stramonium, Secale cornutum,
Filix mas, Opium, Styrax, Colchicum, Ricinus,
and so forth. The active components of
medicinal plants are a product of the natural,
most seamless laboratory.
11. • In present days, almost all pharmacopoeias in
the world
– European pharmacopoeia 6,
– US pharmacopoeia XXXI
– British pharmacopoeia
proscribe plant drugs of real medicinal value.
13. Garlic
• Garlic ( L. Fam.) is a widely distributed plant, most important
preventive remedy, a universal folk spice and food, a well-trusted
remedy.
• Garlic has been utilized as a remedy
during the various epidemics such as
typhus, dysentery, cholera, influenza,
and whenever an epidemic has,
emerged garlic has been the first
preventive and curative remedy.
• Scientific Name
– Allium sativum
• Family
– Liliaceae
14. • Chemical Constituents:
– Sulfur Compounds
• Aliin
• Allicin (causes pungent smell of garlic)
• Ajoene
• Allylpropyl Disulfide
• Diallyl Trisulfide
– Several enzymes (allinase, peroxidases,
myrosinase, and others),
– Amino acids (arginine and others), and
– Minerals (selenium, germanium,
18. Aloe Vera
• Aloe is the oldest medicinal plant ever known and
the most applied medicinal plant worldwide.
• Aloe help to soothe skin injuries affected by
burning, skin irritations, cuts and insect bites, and
its bactericidal properties relieve itching and skin
swellings.
• Scientific Name:
– Aloe vera
• Family:
– Asphodelaceae
21. Opium Poppy
• Opium poppy is a flowering plant native
to Turkey. Opium, morphine, codeine,
and heroin are all derived from the
milky latex found in its
unripe seed capsule.
• Scientific Name:
– Papaver somniferum
• Family:
– Papaveraceae
23. Uses:
• Morphine
i. Most powerful analgesic used in cases of severe
pain as post operative pain, bone fracture,
cancer patients, and in angina.
ii. Remedy in convulsions.
iii. Precede the use of anesthetics to increase
efficacy.
iv. Used as an antagonist for poisonous effects of
other alkaloids as strychnine, atropine,
physostigmine.
24. • Codeine:
i. It is weaker in intensity than morphine.
ii. Produces less tendencies to addiction.
iii. Depresses cough centers in brain.
iv. Causes constipation and hypnosis.
25. • Heroine:
i. It is synthetic diacetyl derivative of
morphine.
ii. It is 5x more potent as morphine.
• Papaverive:
i. It is smooth muscle relaxant.
• Narcotine (Noscapine):
i. It has little or no analgesic effects, but have
antispasmodic and vasodilator effects.
26. Fennel
• Fennel was well-known to the Ancients, and it
was also cultivated by the ancient Romans for its
aromatic fruits and edible shoots.
• It is reported that during third-century B.C.
Fennel seeds are commonly taken after meals to
prevent gas and stomach upset.
• Scientific Name:
– Foeniculum vulgare
• Family
– Umbelliferae
27.
28. • Chemical Constituents:
– Anethole
– Fenchone
– Limonene
– Estragol
– Volatile Oils
– Anisic acid
– Coumarin
– Vitamin A & C
29. • Uses:
• Fennel is used as stomachic, aromatic,
diuretic, carminative, diaphoretic, as a
digestive, and flavoring agent.
• Anethole may have estrogen-like activity and
inhibit spasms in smooth muscles. Fennel can
increase production of bile, used in the
treatment of infant colic, can increase
lactation, act as antipyretic, antimicrobial and
anti-inflammatory.
30. Clove
• Cloves are the aromatic dried flower buds that
was used to extract oil used for a number of
purposes.
• Clove is largely used as dried whole buds. Ground
clove is used for curry mixtures and clove oil is
used for flavoring foods and in pharmaceutical
industry.
• Scientific Name:
– Eugenia caryophyllus
• Family
– Myrtaceae
32. • Uses:
1. Condiment.
2. Carminative.
3. Clove oil which contain high percentage of
eugenol used commercially to produce Vanillin.
4. Antiseptic.
5. Flavoring agent.
6. Dental uses : as filling material with ZnO
7. Local anesthetic (dental analgesic)
