Survey of crude drugs from Coimbatore city.

In order to prepare a list of the raw drugs sold in Coimbatore city, a market survey was conducted. There are 72 species spreading over 41 families and according to their life forms, 29 are herbs, 13 shrubs, 23 trees and 7 climbers and 88% of these belong to the dicotyledons. It was also noticed that various plant parts were used as crude drugs. The species like Acacia nilotica (Linn.) Willd. ex Del. subsp. indica (Benth.) Brenan, Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees, Eclipta prostrata (Linn.) Linn., Adhatoda zeylanica Medic., Zingiber officinale Rosc., Acorus calamus Linn., Centella asiatica (Linn.) Urban, Phyllanthus amarus Schum. & Thonn., Solanum nigrum Linn. and Gymnema sylvestre (Retz) Schult. have higher market potential. Most of the crude drugs are already commercially cultivated in India but a few endangered plants like Dysoxylum malabaricum Bedd. , Rauvolfia serpentina Benth. ex Kurz are also sold in the market. If the same trend continues, we may have to lose our valuable plant heritage by way of over exploitation of the wild and endangered species. There is an urgent need of documentation of this irreplaceable knowledge to meet the ever growing demand of medicinal plants in the market.