Preclinical Pharmacology of Some Important Indian Medicinal Herbs in Animal Models and Their Mode of Action

Herbs have been used as medicines since the beginning of time and are a rich source of many curative substances. In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift towards medicinal plant research due to the costlier modern drugs available in the market, and potential side effects and resistance developed by many conventional therapeutic agents. Pharmacological screening of medicinal plants using various scientific methods like in vitro, in vivo as well as in silico methods involving different experimental models provides emerging preclinical research exploring their mechanism of action. India is a large repository of many species of medicinal plants. According to a recent WHO estimate, a large amount of plant species, almost 21,000, have the capacity to be used as medicines. Medicinal plants such as Aloe barbadensis Mill., Ocimum tenuiflorum L., Curcuma longa L., Azadirachta indica A. Juss, Piper nigrum L., Cinnamomum verum J. Presl., Trifolium pratense L., Zingiber officinale Rosc, Carthamus tinctorius L., Piper nigrum, Allium sativum L and Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Nees., Withania somnifera L. (Dunal), Cissus quadrangularis L., Plumbago zeylanica L., etc. reported to have therapeutic effects against severe common health ailments. Phytoconstituents present in medicinal herbs like alkaloids, tannins, saponins, ferric chloride, phenolics, emodins, and volatile oils showed potential therapeutic activity by interacting with the main targets in cells, such as receptor proteins, biomembranes, or nucleic acid. Biochemical outcomes of experimental studies showed that medicinal plants exert many pharmacological activities. The current review concentrates on the pharmacological activity of some important medicinal plants in various experimental animal models.