THERAPEUTIC RELEVANCE OF AEGLE MARMELOS: A REVIEW

Aegle marmelos, commonly known as Bael or Bilva, is a traditional tree belonging to the family Rutaceae with enormous value in ethnobotany, Ayurveda, and has been used since time immemorial for its spiritual significance as an offering to Lord Shiva while worshipping. Looking at its religious perspective and medicinal benefits, people have conserved trees of Bael in sacred groves. It is a sub-tropical tree and grows wildly in the dry, dry dipterocarp and mixed deciduous forests on the plains and hilly regions. Researchers have used and studied almost all the parts like root, bark, fruit, leaves, and seeds of this significant tree because of the varied phytoconstituents isolated from them, like alkaloids and terpenoids, amino acids, fatty acids, coumarins, etc. Substantial experiments were conducted on Aegle marmelos owing to many phytoconstituents found in it and they were found to exhibit potential therapeutic responses in many pharmacological activities like anti-diabetic, anti-hyperlipidemic, analgesic, antimicrobial, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, radioprotective, anti-ulcer, anticancer, gastroprotective, antidiarrheal, etc., to name a few. Many pharmaceutical herbal industries have been formulating preparations using different parts of Aegle marmelos for quite a long. Still, there are yet many segments that have been overlooked, leaving big grounds for cutting-edge work. Hence, it was worthy of putting forward a consolidated and updated overview of the pharmacognostic aspect of Aegle marmelos, incorporating its phytoconstituents, therapeutic properties, and ethnomedicinal benefits for aiding the scientists, students, and aspiring researchers for futuristic research on this significant plant, for promoting its rigorous large scale cultivation and ethno conservation and also for manifesting the potential of this plant in the pharmaceutical industry for herbal formulations.