Antiarthritic Activity of Some Indigenous Plants

Arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, systemic autoimmune disease characterized by pain, swelling and stiffness. Allopathic medications have been prescribed to alleviate symptoms of this disease which results into associated side effects like heart attack, stroke, stomach ulcers, bleeding from the digestive tract, and kidney damage etc. Hence the use of herbal medicine is becoming popular due to toxicity and side effects of allopathic medicines. The plant, as one of the important sources, still maintains its original place in the treatment of various diseases, including arthritis, with minimum side effects. Considerable studies have been carried out on ethno medicinal plants; however, only few medicinal plants have attracted the interest of scientists, to investigate them as a remedy for arthritis. In this review an attempt has been done to highlight the work on indigenous medicinal plants having Anti-arthritic potential.