Andrographis Paniculata – A Review

Abstract

Andrographis paniculata (AP) is commonly known as creat or green chiretta belongs to the family Acanthaceae. It is also known as Kalmegh and popularly called as King of bitters. It was widely used in the traditional system of medicines such as Siddha system, Ayurvedic system and Chinese medicine for the regular treatment of a common cold. Some of the reported health benefits are Antidiabetic, Antipyretic, Hepatoprotective, Antioxidant, Antimalarial, Anti-cancer, Antityphoid, Anti-diarrhoea, antioedema, etc. Whole plant possesses medicinal property and leaves are explicitly used for therapeutic care. The plant contains four major diterpenoids such as andrographolide, neoandrographolide,14-deoxyandrographolide, 14-deoxy-11,12-didehydroandrographolide and also includes other phytoconstituents such as flavonoidssesquiterpene lactones, etc. Andrographolide is found as major constituent in the leaves and reported for a wide variety of pharmacological activities. The purpose of this review is to brief the plant's literature survey via internet sources such as google scholar and PubMed providing a medium to explain the plant's ethnobotany information on conventional usage, essential chemical constituents and selected plant pharmacology activities are obtained from existing research articles to frame the review. The present analysis also illustrates the pharmacological and phytochemical characteristics of Andrographis paniculata from which researchers may get benefited for further qualitative research.