Record Details

Evaluation and Biosynthesis of Enzymes from Tropical Medicinal Plants

EPrints@IICB

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Title Evaluation and Biosynthesis of Enzymes from Tropical Medicinal Plants
 
Creator Dutta, Sangita
 
Subject Structural Biology & Bioinformatics
 
Description Medicinal plants grow naturally around us. Over centuries, cultures around the world have learned how to use plants to fight illness and maintain health. These readily available and culturally important traditional medicines form the basis of an accessible and affordable health-care regime for indigenous and rural populations. Written records of the use of plants as medicinal agents date back thousands of years. The oldest records come from Mesopotamia and date from about 2600 BC. Those records are not simply a case of one or two plant based ‘drugs’ finding their way into popular use, because the documents indicate that there were many drugs in use that contained plants (upto 1,000 in the case of Mesopotamia). Four thousand years ago, the medical knowledge of the Indian subcontinent was termed as ayurveda and from that time ayurveda remains an important system of medicine and drug therapy in India. Plant alkaloids are the primary active ingredients of ayurvedic drugs. Folk or ethno-medicinal uses represent leads, which may guide pharmaceutical researchers to discover modern therapeutic drugs. Skepticisms may still exist among some researchers regarding indigenous folk traditions that have been handed down from generation to generation. However, many medicinally important compounds for example, atropine, digitoxin, d-tubocurarine, ephedrine, morphine, reserpine, podophyllotoxin, bromelain and many other are of natural origin. Indeed, some have been discovered through following up leads derived from ethnographic research into folk use and information on integration of the indigenous people with their ecosystem.
 
Date 2013
 
Type Thesis
NonPeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.eprints.iicb.res.in/2071/1/SANGITA_THESIS.pdf
Dutta, Sangita (2013) Evaluation and Biosynthesis of Enzymes from Tropical Medicinal Plants. PhD thesis, Jadavpur University.
 
Relation http://www.eprints.iicb.res.in/2071/