Indian medicinal plants are being used to cure diseases, since several millennia. These plants are grown throughout the Indian subcontinent. They are significant parts of Ayurveda. Ayurveda is one of the most popular codified medical traditions in India. This treatment method traces its origins to the Vedic ages. Numerous Indian medicinal plants are mentioned in the Vedic texts. Besides Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicinal practices use several medicinal plants to prepare medicines. Whilst most of the medicinal plants are native to India, some have their origin in foreign countries. The probable trade taking place during the existence of ancient civilizations and the arrival of the Europeans, paved the way for medicinal plants in India.
Some important Indian medicinal plants are:
Ashoka Tree: Ashoka tree is one of the sacred trees of the Hindus as well as the Buddhists. The astringent bark is reported to have a stimulating effect on the endometrial and ovarian tissue, and is useful for treating menstrual pain and menorrhagia due to uterine fibroids, leucorrhoea, and internal bleeding, hemorrhoids and hemorrhagic dysentery. In Ayurveda ashoka tree is used for treating dyspepsia, other diseases of the blood, biliousness, tumours, abdominal enlargement, colic, piles, ulcers and bone fractures.
Sundari Tree: Sundari Local name of the dominant plant species, Heritiera fomes, of the family Sterculiaceae, in the Sundarbans, the mangrove forests of the southern districts. The species is distributed up to about 70 per cent of the forest. Sundari Tree is a large tree with wing shaped nuts, which is most easily recognised by the silvery scales on the underside of its leaves. Scientifically known as Heritiera littoralis, it is commonly called the Sundari tree in both Hindi and Bengali language.