Antioxidants in medicinal plants

Abstract

Over the years, research on antioxidants and medicinal plants has gained enormous popularity and emerged as a potential therapeutic to prevent free radical generated damage in the human body. Free radicals are well known for the pathogenesis of various degenerative diseases,. i.e., cancer, cardiovascular diseases, immunomodulator, neurological disorder, diabetes, aging, etc. Medicinal plants are being viewed as easily available and potent source of antioxidants as they contain a mixture of different chemical compounds that may act individually or in synergy to cure the disease and improve health. A single plant may have diversity of phytochemicals, which represents a number of pharmacological properties. However, many herbal medicine used today have not gone under careful scientific assessment and some have the potential to cause serious toxic effects. Therefore, careful scientific and clinical studies of the herbal medicine for the safety and toxicity are required. With high prevalence of medicinal plants in India and their potential as a source of antioxidants need to be judiciously investigated. The present chapter focuses on the role of antioxidants in disease prevention and their potential in Indian medicinal plants.