Medicinal plants having anti-obesity potentiality available in Bangladesh: A review.

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a complex, severe and chronic disease that can have an unenthusiastic effect on many systems in human body. In traditional medication, many medicinal plants have been used to treat obesity. The aim of the present study is to present medicinal plants which are available in Bangladesh that proved their anti-obesity activities have been. Method: Bibliographic study was carried out by analyzing conventional text books and peer reviewed papers, consulting wide-reaching accepted scientific databases. In this review, the investigation terms were “obesity” in addition to (“herbal medicine” or “plant”, “medicinal plants” or “medicine traditional”) with no limiting search objects. Later it was cross checked whether the plants were available in the country or not from the Bangladeshi online medicinal plants databases. Findings: More than 100 plants have anti-obesity potentiality; however, only 23 species are available in Bangladesh. The plants are: Achyranthes aspera Linn, Acorus calamus Linn, Aegle marmelos Linn, Allium cepa Linn, Allium sativum Linn, Bombax ceiba L., Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt, Cucumis melo L., Hibiscus sabdariffa L., Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam, Morus alba L., Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn, Phaseolus vulgaris L., Punica granatum L., Senna siamea (Lam.) H.S.Irwin & Barneby, Shorea robusta Gaertn, Solanum lycopersicum L., Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M.Perry, Tamarindus indica L., Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Moringa oleifera and Citrus limon (L.). Conclusion: There are a lot of plants in Bangladesh which seem to be a safe treatment source for obesity control. Further researches are recommended to evaluate this potentiality for presenting effective and safe drugs for obesity in the market.