List of Medicinal Plants | Their Uses in Different Diseases

Medicinal plants are valuable resources for our health care system since ancient period.

These natural herbs are an important source of drugs for alternative medicine systems.

These systems include Ayurveda, homeopathy, Unani and even allopathy.

They are thought to constitute 80% of total drugs used by humans.

These natural healing herbs are used in the treatment of many diseases and disorders.

Their specialty is advantages like better compatibility in the body, easy metabolism, low side effects and also less expensive than synthetic drugs.

Further, they are not harmful to the environment after disposal.

They don’t require heavy manufacture, expensive analysis, and storage facility.

They retain their potency for a long period if stored well.

Many of them can be used as home-made preparations, during an emergency or can be bought as over the counter drugs without a physician prescription.

These medicinal plants come under different types of plants and not restricted to one family or type of plants.

So below chart gives an idea of the List of Medicinal Plants and uses.

List of Medicinal Plants, their uses

Sl.No.	Name of plant	Source of plant (Scientific)	Uses
1	Aconite	Aconitum ferox –plant root	Leprosy, cholera,catarrh
2	Aloe vera	Aloe barbadensis	Succulent leaves. Used as hydrating agent for smooth skin
3	Arjuna	Terminalia Arjuna-Tree dry Bark	Correct Blood pressure, heart beat, congestive heart failure, OPD for easy breath
4	Ashwagandha	Withania somnifera-roots & stem bases.	Neurotonic, Rheumatism, gout, hypertension, cancer
5	Belladonna	Atropa accuminata-leaves & flowers	Anti-spasmodic, anticholinergic, antidote for chloral hydrate & opium poisoning
6	Banafsha	Viola odorata	Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, in fever, as expectorant (to remove phlegm)
7	Black pepper	Piper nigrum-unripe fruits	As stomachic (enhances hunger), carminative (enhances eructation)
8	Caraway	Carum carvi,dry ripe fruits	Expels gas by eructation
9	Cascar	Dried bark of Rhamnus purshiana	As stomachic and laxative
10	Cardamom	Elettaria cardamomum-dry-ripe fruits	Expels gas by eructation (carminative)
11	Castor oil	Ricinus communis-seed’s fixed oil	Catharatic (in constipation), hair growth promoter
12	Ceylon Cinnamon	Cinnamomum zeylanicum	Carminative (enhances eructation)
13	Citronella oil	Cymbopogan nardus-volatile oil from leaves	Mosquito repellent
14	Clove	Eugenia caryophyllus-dry flower bud	Dental analgesic, anti-septic, carminative
15	Coriander	Coriandrum sativum-dry fruits	Carminative
16	Corkwood	Duboisia myoporoides-dry leaves	Duboisia myoporoides-dry leves
	Digitalis	Dried leaves of digitalis purpurea.	Treatment of heart failur and cardiac arrhythmia
17	Egyptian Henbane	Hyoscyamus niger-leaves & flower tip	Relieve spasm of urinary tract & gripping effect of purgatives
18	Eucalyptus oil	Eucalyptus citriodara-leaf oil	Has essential oils with uses like Expectorant (removes phlegm), counter-irritant.
19	Fennel	Foeniculum vulgare-dry ripe fruit	Expels gas by eructation
20	Garlic	Allium sativum-bulbs	To enhance libido, expel phlegm, for eructation
21	Ginseng	Panax ginseng	As immunomodulator. See more health benefits of ginseng.
22	Ginger	Zingiber officinale, dried rhizome	Anti-emetic, anti inflammatory.
23	Glycyrrhiza (Liquorice)	Glycyrrhiza glabra; dried roots and stolons	Expectorant and anti-inflammatory
24	Senna	Cassia angustifolia-dried leaflets	For purgation of bowels.
25	Ipecac	Cephaelis ipecacuanha-dried roots & rhizomes	To induce vomiting (emetic)
26	Isapgol	Plantago ovate-	To relieve constipation (laxative)
27	Jira	Ciminum cyminum-dry ripe fruit Ciminum cyminum-dry ripe fruit	Stimulant, carminative
28	Lemon grass Oil	Cymbopogan flexosus-volatile oil of leaves & other plant parts	Vitamin-A precursor
29	Mentha oil	Mentha piperita-volatile oil from flowers	Expels gas by eructation
30	Opium poopy	Papaver somniferum-dry latex having Morphine, codeine etc.	To relieve severe pains, cough, & also as hypnotic
31	Palmarosa oil	Cymbopogan martini-volatile oil from leaves	Insect repellent
32	Papain	Carica papaya (papaya plant-unripe fruit latex.	One of anti inflammatory herbs
33	Peruvian bark	Cinchona ledgeriana-dried bark	Anti-malarial drug
34	Pyrethrum	Chrysanthemum cineraria folium flower heads	As an insecticide to kill insects mosquito repellent
35	Rheumatism root	Dioscorea composite-dried tubers	For rheumatic arthritis
36	Rauwolfia	Rauwolfia serpentine-Dry roots	As a Anti-hypertensive agent
37	Sandal wood oil	Santalum album-volatile oil	Decreases frequent urination tendency.
38	Solanum khasianum	Solanum-dried berries	For steroid production
39	Tulsi	Ocimum sanctum-fresh & dry leaves	Uses of tulsi are Anti-bacterial, insecticide and immune modulator
40	Turmeric	Curcuma longs-dry rhizomes	Anti-septic, anti-oxidant, condiment
41	Turpentine oil.	Pinus roxburghii-volatile oil	Counter irritant (for pain relief)
42	Vetiver oil	Vetiveria zizanoides-volatile oil from root	Relive prickly heat and itching
43	Vinca	Catharanthus roseus-entre plant	medicinal plants for cancer treatment, anticancer herbs
44	Yew	Taxus baccata	Dry leaves, bark & roots.

This big list of uses indicates the importance of plants. So we need to take efforts to prevent them from eradication in the name of development.

Conservation of medicinal plants is very important for future use.

Due to heavy use, large plants and those plants which take a long time for germination and growth are chopped off.

Hence the conservation of medicinal plants is done by obtaining the medicinal plant material by agriculture methods of cultivation instead of relying on the plants grown naturally in forests.

Further, we need to take steps for conservation of medicinal plants by obtaining these medicinal plant drugs by tissue culture method where possible.