INDIAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Indian health care industry is rapidly growing and expected to reach over 280 billion USD by 2020 [6,7], however the Indian public health system is still poorly funded [5], and access to medicines and treatments is not always easy and affordable, one of the reasons, in spite not the only one, for many patients to search cures and treatments for their ailments and symptoms in traditional medicinal systems.

Ayurvedic traditional medicine is one of them, and among some of the herbs used to treat common ailments and illnesses we find one, Curculigo orchioides, that deserves special attention for its properties.

CURCULIGO ORCHIOIDES

Family: Hypoxidaceae
Genus: Curculigo
Common name: Xian mao, black musli, Kala musli, Hemapuspi, Talamulika, Mosali [13,19], Golden Eye-grass [19].

Albizia julibrissin (Silktree or Persian silk tree), is a perennial tree shrub from the fabaceae family. It is only recently that scientist discovered that the extract of Albizia julibrissin flowers exerted anti-obesity properties by inhibiting adipogenesis [1], the process by which our organisms generate fat cells. Image left: Mimosa americana, Mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) by pizzodisevo under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-SA 2.0).

In the mentioned study, the extract of Albizia julibrissin inhibited adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes (cells that still didn't become fat cells of adipocytes). This opened a potential line of study for the use of this herb as anti-obesity agent.

Other characteristics of Silk tree included anti-angiogenetic (the process involved in the generation of certain types of cancer), and cytotoxic properties [2].

ALBIZIA JULIBRISSIN

Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Albizia
Common name: Pink siris, Persian silk tree, Lenkoran acacia, bastard tamarind, mimosa, silk tree [1], mimosa tree [14].

Baicalein is a phenolic flavonoid compound [3,13], a flavone extracted from the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis [13], Scutellaria paniples and from the flowers of Oroxylum indicum, this last herb used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine for its anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic and anti-hypersensitivity effects [19]. Phenolic compounds are the largest group of plants secondary metabolites [4]. They are known for their many beneficial properties and health-promoting characteristics, most of those mainly exerted by its antioxidant and free-radical scavenging distinctive properties. Polyphenolic compounds have also reported an anti-ulcerogenic activity and a good level of gastric protection [4].

Baicalein protects the cells against oxidative stress. Polyphenols are also known to contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, osteoporosis, neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer's disease and dementia, also as viral agent [8], and diabetes mellitus [4] among many others. Let's see how some of these properties.

SCUTELLARIA BAICALENSIS

Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Scutellaria
Common name: Baikal skullcalp.

More and more pharmaceutical companies and chemical laboratories center their interest in natural chemicals found in herbs and plants used for the treatment of common illnesses. Some of them have shown to be far from effective but some others have proven to have wonderful results in vitro and in vivo.

THUNDER OF GOD VINE

An example of these last ones is Thunder of God Vine (Tripterygium wilfordii Hook), from which scientist have obtained an active constituent, a triterpene extracted from the plant that has shown important anti-cancer properties, Celastrol. Tripterygium wilfordii for cancer treatment seems to be this way another possible option in the search of active constituents from plants for the treatment of cancer.