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Indigenous Medicinal Plants of Pakistan Used to Treat Skin Diseases

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Indigenous Medicinal Plants of Pakistan Used to Treat Skin Diseases Alamgeer et al. Chin Med (2018) 13:52 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13020-018-0210-0 Chinese Medicine REVIEW Open Access Indigenous medicinal plants of Pakistan used to treat skin diseases: a review Alamgeer1*, Amber Sharif1, Hira Asif1, Waqas Younis1, Humayun Riaz2, Ishfaq Ali Bukhari3 and Asaad Mohamed Assiri4 Abstract Ethno‑pharmacological relevance: Plants are providing reliable therapy since time immemorial. Pakistan has a great diversity in medicinal fora and people use these ethno-medicines to deal with many skin problems. This review explores the fundamental knowledge on various dermatological properties of medicinal plants of Pakistan and is aimed to provide a baseline for the discovery of new plants having activities against skin issues. Material and method: A total of 244 published articles were studied using diferent research engines like PubMed, Google, Google-scholar and science direct. Results: Review of literature revealed ethno-pharmacological use of 545 plant species, belonging to 118 families and 355 genera, to combat various skin ailments. Out of these, ten most commonly used plant species belonging to ten diferent families are documented in this review. It was also found out that ehno-medicines are prepared using vari- ous parts of the plants including leaves (28.32%), whole plant and roots 13.17% and 10.97% respectively, in the form of powder (23.5%) and paste (22.75%). A total of 13 endangered plant species and ten commercially important plants were recorded. Conclusion: Medicinal plants of Pakistan have therapeutic efects against several skin problems; however most of medicinal plants are still not evaluated scientifcally to support their ethno-pharmacological claim on skin. Derma- tological pathogens are recommended to study. Further, the conservational programs should be established for endangered species. Keywords: Medicinal fora, Skin problems, Ethno-medicine, Dermatological pathogens Background folklore and traditional medicines [2]. Te origin of the History of natural products is as old as human civili- word “Ethnobotany” is accredited to US ethnobotanist zations and so is the Indigenous knowledge, which is “John Harshberger” who described and explained the handed down to the people from their ancestors through relationship between people and plants they use in a verbal communication; people have been living in close culture in 1895 [1, 3]. In Sub-continent, Rig Veda (4500– association with plants since time immemorial [1]. Te 1600 BC) compiled frst record of ethno-medicine [4]. purpose of standardizing traditional remedies is, obvi- In ancient times, natural products were successfully ously, to ensure therapeutic efcacy of medicinal plants; used to treat diferent ailments owing to their enhanced whereas the value of ethno-medicinal information in acceptability in human society, better compatibility with modern pharmacology lies in the development of new the body and their natural power to treat ailment via syn- drugs. Some modern drugs have been deducted from ergistic efects and neutralizing combinations to lessen adverse efects [5]. Medicinal plants are better as com- pared to synthetic drugs because of minimal adverse *Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] reactions [6, 7]. Medicinal plants (trees, shrubs, grasses 1 Laboratory of Cardiovascular Research and Integrative Pharmacology, or vines) can be used in diferent forms [8] like extracts, College of Pharmacy, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creat​iveco​mmons​.org/licen​ses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creat​iveco​mmons​.org/ publi​cdoma​in/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Alamgeer et al. Chin Med (2018) 13:52 Page 2 of 26 in fresh or powdered form, seeds, fruits, vegetable mix- diseases specifcally in developing countries, due to the tures, etc. [9]. fact that health care workers lack training in skin care According to an estimate, earth carries 265,000 spe- and skin diseases, which have been of major concern, cies of plants but only half of these are yet investigated recently, due to their association with the Human Immu- for their medicinal values and chemical composition. nodefciency Virus and Acquired Immunity Defciency In developing countries, around 80% of the population Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) [26]. Since human civilization, depends upon medicinal plants for combating difer- plants are used to treat major skin issues like wounds, ent diseases but this was estimated about a decade ago cuts and burns [27]. In a study, it was documented that [10, 11] while in developed countries, 60% of the popu- 80% of the Indian population uses ethno-medicines to lation uses these plants [6], 40–50% of the population in deal with skin problems and 50% of the medicinal plants Germany, 42% in the USA, 48% in Australia and 49% in used against skin problems are restricted to forest [28]. France depends upon plants for diferent health issues Tis review is an attempt to summarize utmost possi- [12]. Importance of these medicinal plants can be judged ble information on ethno-medicines and pharmacology by the fact that at least 25% of the drugs enlisted in mod- of the plants used in Pakistan to cure skin diseases. Tis ern Pharmacopoeia are of plant origin [5]. Also about study was aimed to investigate the ethno-medicinal uses 25% of the medical prescriptions are based on the sub- of the plants of Pakistan to treat various skin conditions. stances or analogs of the substances of plant origin [13]. We were interested in gathering the answers of the fol- Pakistan occupies 80,943 km2 area and lies between lowing questions in particular: Which plant species are 60°55′ to 75°30′ E longitude and 23°45′ to 36°50′ N lati- most commonly used traditionally for skin problems? tude [14], and has altitude ranges from 0 to 8611 m Which skin conditions are most commonly treated using with a mixed climate zones; has a large biodiversity of ethno-medicine? Which parts of medicinally important the medicinal plants. Pakistan is blessed with 6000 spe- fora of Pakistan are used against skin diseases? What are cies of higher plants, of which 600–700 are used medici- the recipes for preparing and applying the ethno-medi- nally [15], out of these 6000 species, half (3000 species) cines? Above all, the review will identify gaps in the cur- are reported from Northern areas out of which 124 spe- rent knowledge that will provide a baseline for further cies have medicinal importance [16, 17], 4940 fower- research activities. Also, the review is aimed to highlight ing plants are native to Pakistan (if cultivated fowering the area of Pakistan still need to be investigated. species are included fgure turns 5738) [14]. Unfortu- nately only 10% of the total plant species in Pakistan have reported medicinal values [18]. Data collection and analysis In Pakistan, a large population uses folk medicines Published papers were retrieved from the online biblio- and it has become a defnite part of its cultural heritage graphical database latest till June 2015, search engines [19]. In early 1950s, most of the health concerned issues included: PubMed, Google, Google.scholar, IUNCredlist, were treated using traditional indigenous experiences by druginfosys and sciencedirect. Inside the database, we more than 84% of the population of Pakistan but now this used the keywords like traditional plants for skin, eth- practice is limited to only remote areas of the country nobotany of Pakistan, ethno-medicine, traditional uses [6, 20, 21]. In 1958, Hocking also reported same percent of plants, indigenous plant knowledge, plants used in (84%) of Pakistan population depending upon traditional ethno-pharmacology. While reviewing the literature, medicinal plants for treating diferent ailments. In 1983, focus was on the plants with the potential traditional 63% of the population in Pakistan, especially in villages, usage against various diseases of skin. In total, 244 arti- was reported to use herbal medicines prescribed by cles on Indigenous plants of Pakistan published in Eng- the traditional prescribers [22]. Knowledge on the use lish language were reviewed for this study for the period of medicinal plants is enormous but if this traditional March 2015 to December 2017. Articles selected for this knowledge is not rapidly researched and recorded, indi- review contain plants that were (i) native to Pakistan with cations are that it will be lost with succeeding generations some wide distribution (ii) traditionally used in Pakistan [23]. for treating skin diseases; only those plants were selected Skin, the most diverse organ of the human body, is very that have ethno-pharmacological evidence for skin treat- important for aesthetic reasons and health issues. Skin ment. A master document was formulated enlisting diseases not only give unfavorable looks but also pushes indigenous medicinal plants of Pakistan used by the local the patient into psychic conditions [24]. It has been esti- inhabitants for the treatment of several skin ailments. mated that skin diseases account for 34% of all occupa- Master list constituted vernacular name of the medicinal tional disease [25]. Despite of all the developments in the plants along with the family name, part used, mode of medical science, it is still complicated to manage skin preparation, life form and skin conditions against which Alamgeer et al. Chin Med (2018) 13:52 Page 3 of 26 the plant is being used. All the data were summarized distribution of plants and their families in diferent into 6 tables and 9 fgures.
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