Traditional Phytomedicinal Systems, Scientific Validations and Current Popularity as Nutraceuticals

Medicinal and aromatic plants or botanical herbs are used for their therapeutic, scent, cosmetic or flavor properties. As traditional medicine, many herbs have been used for their claimed health benefits from the dawn of human civilization. Presently, they are sold as fresh or dried plants, teas, extracts, powders, tablets, capsules, forming traditional or commercial natural product therapeutics. The plants, as whole or their parts, e.g. roots, stems, bark, wood, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds, may have some therapeutic properties. Botanical medicines include the medicinal plants as such and their extracts in processed form. The human populations have developed various uses of medicinal plants for the treatment of the diseases affecting their society. The major traditional systems of medicines which have been in practice for about 5000 years are the Indian system of medicine, called Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, Unani, Siddha, Tibetan system, Egyptian, Greek and Roman. Homeopathy, a relatively newer system, is mainly based on the uses of herbs, therefore a brief description of it has also been included in this review. The current popularity of herbals is mainly based on their uses as nutraceuticals which are taken as the dietary supplements that people take to improve their health. Plant based medicines are believed to have synergistic effects and negligible side effects. However, there are several examples that plant medicines can cause health problem, some of them are not effective and may interact with other drugs being taken, simultaneously. During last decade, enormous volume of information on medicinal plants uses (i) as traditional medicine, (ii)