MEDICINAL PLANTS WITH ANTI-ULCER AND HEPATOPROTECTIVE ACTIVITY: A REVIEW

Nature gives numbers of drugs and possibly has all solutions for human diseases. Till date, nature provides a large number of clinically useful drugs. Ulcer and liver diseases are major increasing health problems. Now a day number of drugs are used for the treatment of peptic ulcer and hepatic diseases, but these drugs have various types of side effect such as incidences of relapse, and drug interactions. Drugs of plant origin gaining popularity to treat peptic ulcer and hepatotoxicity. It is difficult to search pure phytochemicals as hepatoprotective and antiulcer drugs. It is time-consuming and also very expensive. From authentic literature sources, it founded that there are no medicinal plants, which utilized for the treatment of ulcer and liver diseases. Andrographis paniculata, Eclipta alba, Picrorrhiza kurroa, Silibum marianum, Phyllanthus and Trichopus zeylanicus, etc. plants are renounced for their satisfactory activity against certain hepatotoxins. The wide range of compounds showing anti–ulcer and hepatoprotective effect, among them flavonoids is most important. Flavonoids play an important role in reducing free radicals. Various isolated compounds like apigenin, sylimarin, genistein, quercetin, kaempherol, catechins and so on show the significant result as hepatoprotective and anti-ulcer drugs. From this review article, we can conclude that no. of medicinal plants and their active chemical constituent are responsible for anti–ulcer and hepatoprotective effect. Among the all chemical constituents flavonoids also playing an important role.