Natural products: a safest approach for obesity / 中国结合医学杂志

Obesity is recognized as a social problem, associated with serious health risks and increased mortality. Numerous trials have been conducted to find and develop new anti-obesity drugs through herbal sources to minimize adverse reactions associated with the present anti-obesity drugs. The use of natural products as medicine has been documented for hundreds of years in various traditional systems of medicines throughout the world. This review focuses on the medicinal plants such as Achyranthus aspera, Camellia sinensis, Emblica officinalis, Garcinia cambogia, Terminalia arjuna, etc., being used traditionally in Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha and Chinese, etc., systems of medicine. The review also highlights recent reported phytochemicals such as escins, perennisosides, dioscin, gracillin, etc., and the various extracts of the plants like Nelumbo nucifera, Panax japonicas, Cichorium intybus, Cyperus rotundus, Paeonia suffruticosa, etc., which have been successfully identified for the treatment of obesity.

Antioxidant studies on some plants a review

Several types of reactive species are generated in the body as a result of metabolic reactions in the form of free radicals or non-radicals. These species may be either oxygen derived or nitrogen derived and thought to be implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of human diseases. These reactive species are generated endogenously or exogenously. Antioxidants neutralize effect of these reactive species and save the body from various diseases. These antioxidants may be of natural origin or synthetic. But special attention is being paid to antioxidants from the natural origin these days due to their safe therapeutic benefits. Present article gives a review on some antioxidant plants with some other brief information