Article: EXPLORING THE AYURVEDIC KNOWLEDGE ON ENVENOMATION: A REVIEW ON ETHNO PHARMACOLOGICAL APPROACH

Article Category: Review articles

DOI: 10.7897/2277-4343.11011

Pages: 1-9

Author: Reshmi Pushpan *, Smitha Jain, Nishteswar K

Abstract: Envenomation is one of the significant public health issues in several tropical and subtropical countries due to high morbimortality. In developing countries like India their management is basically inadequate due to poor transportation and subsequent delay in antivenom administration. So improvement in the therapeutic approaches to envenomation is necessary and therefore the medicinal plants, available locally, which have been used since ages to treat a great variety of diseases including Envenomation, needs attention. Ayurveda, a well-established medical paradigm from ancient India dealt comprehensively on management of acute envenomation and treatment of its complications with the usage of abundant medicinal plants. The present study was designed to bring together information on medicinal plants with antivenin properties and actions. Data has been collected with prominence on the plants, family, parts used, indications, mode of use etc. from Ayurveda literatures in an ethnobotanical perspective. In recent years, many studies have been published on pharmacological confirmation of antivenin potential of these plants against a broad range of envenomation, including enzyme inhibiting activity, anti-hemolytic activity, anti-proteolytic activity, anti-cytotoxicity and anti-myotoxicity. However, several plants claimed to be Vishahara (anti-poisonous) in Ayurveda need to be explored scientifically for their antivenin potential.

Keyword: Envenomation, Ayurveda, Vishahara, Anti-Venom