Abstract
Boswellia serrata (Burseraceae) is the most ancient and respected herbs in Ayurveda. In Unani system of medicine, oleo-gum resin of Boswellia serrata named Kundur played a prime ingredient role in modern quality perfumes. The gum is used as a remedy for treatment of illness especially skin diseases and rheumatism in Indian system of medicine (Sidha, Ayurvedic and Unani) for last diverse centuries. Salai guggul is one of the accepted drugs for various complaints such as dyspepsia, dysentery, lung diseases, urinary disorder, haemorrhoids and corneal ulcer in Unani system of medicine for the last several decades.The present article is aimed to provide an overview on various pharmacological activities of Boswellia serrata. The resin fraction of salai guggal is rich in boswellic acids and its essential oils that are composed of a mixture of mono, di and sesquiterpenes while gum fraction chiefly contains pentose and hexose sugars. The oleo-gum resin is quite popular among the practitioners of traditional system and possesses wide range of useful biological properties such as antiasthmatic, anticancer, antifungal, anticomplementary, antihyperlipidemic, antiinflammatory, antiarthritic, antirheumatic, antidiarrheal, antimicrobial, antifungal and analgesic.An exhaustive review of literature was performed using various databases on science direct, scopus, pubmed, google scholar and free patents online.This review is a sincere attempt to discuss and present the current status of pharmacological profile of Boswellia serrata.
Highlights
Boswellia serrata (Fig. 1) (Kundur) is commonly known as “Salai guggal” owned by the family Burseraceae
The barks secrete an exudate in the form of translucent lumps, tears, or droplets of white to yellow-colored gummy oleo-gum resin
The anti-inflammatory activity of boswellic acid (BA) is due to inhibition of leukotriene synthesis through 5-LO; they have no effect on cyclooxygenase, 12-lipoxygenase arachidonic acid peroxidation by ascorbate, and iron
Summary
Boswellia serrata (Fig. 1) (Kundur) is commonly known as “Salai guggal” owned by the family Burseraceae. Among all the BAs of Boswellia, the two most active, potent, and anti-inflammatory agents are AKBA and KBA. The obtained result revealed that increased bioavailability of BA-PC complex may be due to amphiphilic nature of the complex, which, in turn, enhanced the lipid and water solubility of BAs. Goel et al (2010) developed AKBA-loaded polymeric nanomicelles which showed magnified antiarthritic, anti-inflammatory, and skin permeability activities [35].
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