ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF CALOTROPIS PROCERA: AN OVERVIEW

The herbal medicine occupy distinct position right from ancient period. The plant Calotropis procera is known by different names in different part of the world. It is a wild growing medicinal plant distributed throughout India. The various parts of the plant are practiced in various traditional systems of medicine around the world and popular among the various ethnic groups for the treatment of variety of ailments. Following the various traditional claims on use of Calotropis procera in curing number of diseases, considerable efforts have been made by researchers to verify its utility through scientific pharmacological screenings. Pharmacological studies have revealed that aqueous and organic extracts of various parts of Calotropis procera and its constituents possess a wide range of biological activities such as antidiabetic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antiarthritic, antioxidant, anthelmintic, anticandidial, wound healing, anticonvulsant, antitumour, antiasthmatic, hepatoprotective and cytotoxic. The studies have also revealed the toxic effects of the plant in some experimental animal models on chronic use. This review presents a detailed survey of the literatures on traditional, pharmacognostical, phytochemical and experimentally evaluated medicinal uses of Calotropis procera.