Abstract
Medicinal plants constitute main resource base of almost all the traditional healthcare systems. Most of the herbal drugs produced currently in majority of the developing countries lack proper quality specification and standards. Herbal drugs used in traditional medicine may contain a single herb or combinations of several different herbs believed to have complementary and/or synergistic effects. Both the raw drugs and the finished herbal products manufactured contain complex mixtures of organic compounds, such as fatty acids, sterols, alkaloids, flavonoids, polyphenols, glycosides, saponins, tannins, terpenes etc. The quality of the finished product is based on the quality of the raw materials. As many as 35% of the medicinal plants used in Indian systems of medicine are highly cross pollinated which indicate the existence of a wide range of genetic variability in the populations of these medicinal plant species which in turn reflected in the variations in the composition of secondary metabolites. Ecological and edaphic as well as seasonal variations also cause changes in the chemical composition of medicinal plants. These facts have to be considered while developing quality parameters! standards of medicinal plants and their finished products. Keywords: Medicinal plants, Organic compounds, Secondary metabolite, Pollens, Biosynthesis.
Highlights
While in food plants our main interest is the carbohydrate/sugars, proteins, fats and other vitamins, in medicinal plants we look for therapeutically useful chemicals which are generally termed as secondary metabolites which are not that essential for the normal growth and development of the plants/organisms
Secondary metabolites are the useful natural products that are synthesized through secondary metabolism in the plants
The production of some secondary metabolites is linked to the induction of morphological differentiation and it appears that as the cells undergo morphological differentiation and maturation during plant growth
Summary
While in food plants our main interest is the carbohydrate/sugars, proteins, fats and other vitamins, in medicinal plants we look for therapeutically useful chemicals which are generally termed as secondary metabolites which are not that essential for the normal growth and development of the plants/organisms Plants synthesize these compounds to protect themselves i.e. to adjust, adapt or defend/offend, from the hostile organisms or diseases or the environment. To attract the metabolites in medicinal plants are influenced by a variety insects or birds the plants develop pleasant aroma (essential of factors, which include climate/season, edaphic conditions oils) and provide honey and pollen as food to these or the association of other plants and other living organisms pollinators. Cleanse the immediate environment of competing microorganisms during germination [21, 22, 23, 24]
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