Medicinal Plants

India is a genuine treasure house of medicinal plants, which underpin every institutional system of medicine practised here and connect local traditional heritage to global trade; strikingly, around 90% of medicinal plant material is still gathered from wild, non-cultivated sources, which puts real strain on natural populations even as demand from the growing herbal-products market keeps rising — prompting efforts to bring more medicinal plants into farmer cultivation. These plants serve both as therapeutic agents in their own right and as raw material for the manufacture of traditional and modern medicines. Molecules extracted from plants and marketed as drugs are called Biomedicines, while plant material marketed as powders or other only lightly processed forms is called Botanical medicine. Keezhanelli (Phyllanthus amarus, family now placed in Phyllanthaceae rather than its earlier Euphorbiaceae), a South American native naturalised across India's tropical belt and gathered from moist plains rather than cultivated, owes its hepato-protective reputation to its main active compound, phyllanthin; it is used across Tamil Nadu to treat jaundice, and research by Dr. S. P. Thyagarajan's team at the University of Madras scientifically demonstrated that P. amarus extract is effective against the hepatitis B virus. Adathodai (Justicia adhatoda, family Acanthaceae), native to India and Sri Lanka though not found wild in Tamil Nadu — where it is instead widely planted as a live fence and around temples — owes its broncho-dilating property to the active compound vasicine; its decoction treats bronchial disorders such as cough, cold and asthma, and its extract is an ingredient in cough syrups. Nilavembu (Andrographis paniculata, family Acanthaceae), traditionally called the 'King of Bitters', owes its potent hepatoprotective, liver-supporting action to andrographolide compounds; a decoction combining it with eight other herbs, called Nilavembu Kudineer, is a well-known Tamil Nadu remedy against malaria and dengue. Turmeric (Curcuma longa), already introduced under spices, is medicinally significant chiefly for curcumin, its yellow pigment and pharmacologically active compound, credited wit …