Search for medicinal plants as a source of anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic agents - A review

Inflammatory diseases including different types of rheumatic diseases are a major and world wide problem. Gastrointestinal side effect is the major problem associated with the presently available non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents. Now a days world population moves towards herbal remedies for treatment of such ailments. The number of plants have been screened for their anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic activity, but only few of them reached up to the clinical level. This problem is mainly due to purely academic oriented research. Researchers have to lay emphasis on the phytoconstituents obtained form that plant for the specific treatment of such disease and not only to increase the number of plants having anti-inflammatory activity but have to work towards tapping their therapeutic utility.