Potential applications of medicinal plants in symptomatic treatment of asthma: A review

Abstract

Over the year herbal medicine has achieved significant growth in the global medical field. Compared to other countries India is a major manufacturer of medicines. Herbal medicines play a vital role for the treatment of diseases due to safety and efficacy. In Universe there are many medicinal plants each having potency to treat disease some of them reported and some even not known due to lack of knowledge and less research it has not been identified. Asthma is one of the most common inflammatory diseases of the airways with relapses due to regeneration of airway smooth muscle. Asthma is common and widespread throughout the world. In the United States, approximately 4% of the population suffers from this disease. In adults, both sexes are equally affected, and in children, the ratio of males to females is 2:1. The latest Global Burden of Disease (GBD, 1990-2019) estimates the total burden of asthma in India at 34.3 million, accounting for 13.09% of the global burden. In India, asthma deaths are estimated at 13.2 per 1,000 of the population. Asthma accounts for 27.9% of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in the Indian population. The current review focuses on the herbs recently tested for the treatment of asthma. This paper will focus on various beneficial aspects of herbal medicines compare to allopathic medicines as anti-asthmatic activity which has been proved in animal model. This paper will also focus on medicinal plants which can be used in introducing new herbal formulation effective in treatment of asthma.