Hilal Ahmad , Kalyanaraman Rajagopal

Department of Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Vels University (VISTAS), Pallavaram, Chennai - 600117, India
Author    Correspondence author
Medicinal Plant Research, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/mpr.2015.05.0003
Received: 06 Apr., 2015    Accepted: 12 Jun., 2015    Published: 02 Jul., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Hilal Ahmad and Rajagopal K., 2015, Pharmacology of Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb, Medicinal Plant Research, 5(3) 1-6 (doi: 10.5376/mpr.2015.05.0003)

The plant Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb., belonging to the family Leguminosae commonly grows in the hilly regions of central and peninsular India. It has a long history of numerous traditional and ethno-botanical applications in diverse cultures. It is now considered as a valuable source of unique natural products for development of medicines against various diseases and for the development of industrial products. Aqueous extract of the wood of this plant has a long history to be used in treatment of diabetes mellitus. Literature suggests that Pterocarpus marsupium is useful in treating leprosy, skin diseases, diarrhoea, asthma, bronchitis, grayness of hairs, and other common problems. It is also considered as a potential source of drugs used as an anti-inflammatory, nootropic, astringent, anthelmintic, hypolipidemic, hepatoprotective, anti-ulcer, antioxidant, cardiotonic activities. The diverse pharmacological observations are supposed to be due to the presence of important contents like glycosides, saponins, tannins and flavonoids in it. This review addresses the experimentally authenticated facts and also suggests the need for research on chemical and pharmacological properties of Pterocarpus marsupium.

Pterocarpus marsupium; Diabetes mellitus; Anti-inflammatory; Nootropic; Glycosides; Flavonoids