Herbal approaches of leaves of the plant maytenus emarginata as anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive

https://doi.org/10.54037/WJPS.2022.100208

Abstract

The interest in Nature as a source of potential chemotherapeutic agents continues. Natural products and their derivatives represent more than 50% of all the drugs in clinical use in the world. Higher plants contribute no less than 25% of the total. During the last 40 years, at least a dozen potent drugs have been derived from flowering plants including Dioscorea species derived diosgenin from which all an ovulatory contraceptive agents have been derived; reserpine and other anti-hypertensive and tranquilizing alkaloids from Rauwolfia species; pilocarpine to treat glaucoma and dry mouth, derived from a group of South American trees (Pilocarpus species) in the Citrus family; two powerful anti-cancer agents from the Rosy Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus); laxative agents from Cassia species and as a cardiotonic agent to treat heart failure from Digitalis species. There is a growing interest in herbal drugs, and as an example of this, the consumption of medicinal plants has doubled in the last ten years in Western Europe.