Medicinally Important Herbal Flowers in Sri Lanka

Beneficial medicinal effects and material applications of rose

Rose is a beautiful and fragrant plant with a variety of medicinal and substance uses. Various parts of rose such as fruits, flowers, leaves, and bark can be used in various product development, including cosmetics, food, pharmaceuticals, and engineering. The medical benefits of roses include the treatment of inflammation, diabetes, dysmenorrhea, depression, stress, seizures, and aging. Rose water is precious beauty water for skin care and has antibacterial effects on various microbiota. The surface of a rose petal exhibits a hierarchical structure comprising microscale papillae, with each papilla further featuring intricate nanofolds. With this structural feature, rose petals have high water contact angles together with antagonistic wetting properties. The hierarchical structures of rose petals were shown to have anti-reflection and light-harvesting abilities, which have the potential to be materials for various electronic products. Rose petals are an excellent biomimetic/bioinspired material that can be applied to the popular material graphene. This paper reviews the medical function and material application of roses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical materials or food shortages have become a global issue. Natural biomaterials could be a good alternative. Roses, with so many benefits, definitely deserve more exploration and promotion.

Comparative Analysis of Qualitative and Quantitative Phytochemical Evaluation of Selected Leaves of Medicinal Plants in Jaffna, Sri Lanka

The traditional system of medicine in Sri Lanka has shown much better improvement, has fewer side effects, and is less expensive than modern synthetic drugs in the treatment of many diseases. The objective of the present study was to comparatively evaluate the qualitative and quantitative analysis of phytochemical constituents of leaves of Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng., Tinospora cordifolia (Wild) Hook.f., Enicostemma axillare (Lam) A. Raynal, and Gymnema sylvestre R. Br. were collected from Jaffna District. The shade-dried leaves were powdered and extracted with ethanol using the cold extraction technique. These ethanolic extracts were subjected to phytochemical analysis using recommended laboratory techniques. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's multiple comparisons at probability value (p <0.05) were used in the statistical analysis of the data. Phytochemical screening showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, terpenoids, steroids, saponins, phenols, and glycosides. Murraya koenigii shows the highest phenol and alkaloid contents (1960.71±66.88 and 19.42±0.26). Enicostemma axillare shows the highest flavonoid and tannin contents (22.27±0.86 and 1.26±0.017). Therefore, E. axillare and M. koenigii can be used as nutraceuticals in traditional medicine.

Antidiabetic Activity of Widely Used Medicinal Plants in the Sri Lankan Traditional Healthcare System: New Insight to Medicinal Flora in Sri Lanka

The use of medicinal plant extracts and their isolated bioactive compounds for the management of diabetes mellitus has been tremendously increased in recent decades. The present study aimed at providing in-depth information on medicinal flora that has been widely used in the Sri Lankan traditional healthcare system for the management of diabetes mellitus. The data of this review article were obtained from published articles from January 2000 to September 2020 in scientific databases of PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. In this review, a total number of 18 medicinal plants with the antidiabetic activity were expressed, and their isolated antidiabetic active compounds were highlighted as new drug leads. Results of the reported studies revealed that medicinal plants exert a potent antidiabetic activity via both in vitro and in vivo study settings. However, bioactive compounds and antidiabetic mechanism (s) of action of many of the reported medicinal plants have not been isolated/elucidated the structure in detail, to date. Reported antidiabetic medicinal plants with other properties such as antioxidant and antihyperlipidemic activities deliver new entities for the development of antidiabetic agents with multiple therapeutic targets. This is a comprehensive review on potential antidiabetic activities of the Sri Lankan medicinal plants that have been widely used in the traditional healthcare system. The information presented here would fill the gap between the use of them by traditional healers in the traditional medicine healthcare system in Sri Lanka and their potency for development of new drug entities in future.

Herbal Medications Used to Treat Fever

Fever is a natural body defense and a common symptom of disease. Herbs have been used for thousands of years to treat fever. Many herbs have anti-inflammatory properties. Some are useful in reducing the release of cytokines and mediators of inflammation, whereas others work as natural aspirins to inhibit cyclooxygenase. In addition, herbs have known antipathogenic properties and can be effective in the treatment of infection from numerous microorganisms. Last, in traditional Chinese medicine, herbs are used to restore imbalances between the nonpathogenic and the pathogenic clearing interior heat and treating heat patterns in a variety of ways.