Traditional Medicines – Sources and Clinical Applications

The Natural products and traditional medicines are of great importance; such forms of medicine as traditional medicine, Ayurveda and Unani have been practiced in some areas of the world and have blossomed into orderly regulated system of medicine. As per WHO traditional is sum total of the knowledge , skill and practices based on theories, beliefs and experience indigenous to different culture, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.. Indian traditional medicines offer treatment methods to cure many common diseases such as food allergies, which have few modern treatments. Traditional medicines refers to health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercise, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illness or maintain well being. There is an increasing demand for herbal medicines, health products, pharmaceuticals. Glycyrrhiza glabra Linn is a plant used in traditional medicine across the world for its ethnopharmacological value. It is found to contain important phytoconstituents such as glycyrrhizin, glycyrrhizinic acid, glabrin A and B and iso-flavones. It is effectively used as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti- fungal, anti-diabetic, antiviral, anti-ulcer, antitussive, anti-oxidant, skin whitening, antidiuretic agent.