Medicinal plants are played an important role during tha Covid-19 pandemic and also its utilization in the day today life for boosting the immunity against the corona virus infections. In the natural vegetations Kashmir Himalayas, Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats regions in different part of the country are rich in medicinal plants diversity. Among this the Western Ghats mountain range runs parallel to the West coast of Peninsular India for about 1600km. It has very rich floristic diversity about 4000 indigenous angiosperm species which includes 1500 endemic plant species. The Western Ghats is a global biodiversity hotspot which comprises endemic status of 78% Amphibians, 62% Reptiles, 38% Plants and 12% Mammals are Endemic to the W. Ghats. As for the drug identification are concern many of the studies are involves in the plant drug identification process. Among them some of the studies and techniques are Biological origin, Geographical distribution & history, Cultivation & Collection, Plant protection, Macroscopic characters or Morphological characters (Organoleptic studies), Microscopic characters (Histology), Chemical constituents present in crude drug, Chemical test for unorganized drugs, Therapeutic and pharmaceutical uses etc. In addition the adulteration and substitution of crude drug is a challenging issue in the present scenario. The main objective this presentation is to make awareness on the status of the medicinal plants in the southern Western Ghats and plant drug identification issues as well and this will be very useful for drug discovery and drug development research activities of indigenous systems of medicine.
Author(s): Dr. R. Murugeswaran