Ethnopharmacological review of traditional medicinal plants as immunomodulator

Abstract

Medicinal plants play significant roles in the prevention of human beings from various pathogenic microorganisms and diseases. The immunomodulators are agents used to modulate the immune system and can be obtained from both natural as well as synthetic origin from plants and chemicals. Alteration within the system is often achieved by immunomodulatory agents from a plant source, low molecular weight compounds like alkaloids and other nitrogen-containing compounds, terpenes, phenols, and high molecular weight compounds like lectins, polysaccharides. The Immune system is a part of the body to detect the pathogen by using a specific receptor to produce an immediate response by the activation of immune components cells, cytokines, and chemokines and also release of an inflammatory mediator. This review also discusses various ethnopharmacological information of traditional medicinal plants being used as immunomodulators.