Gmelina arborea: A bioprospective plant

Ayurveda is known in India for thousands of years. Ayurveda, means the science of life (Ayur = Life, Veda = Science), ayurveda is an ancient medical science which was developed in India. Since ancient times Ayurveda has stood for the wholesome physical, mental and spiritual growth of humanity around the world. Today, it's a unique, indispensable branch of medicine, a complete naturalistic system that depends on the diagnosis of your body's humours-vata, pitta and kapha-to achieve the right balance. The ayurvedic classics also described the clinical uses of thousands of medicinal plants. With the increasing esteem of herbal medicine and ayurveda, use of medicinal plants is expected to rise globally. The popularity of herbs have increased because of side effects of synthetic drugs, development of resistance to many drugs like antibiotics, public awareness, population explosion, insufficient supply of drugs, high cost of synthetic drugs. Gmelina arborea (white teak) locally known as gamhar or gamhari, is a fast growing deciduous tree, occurring naturally throughout greater part of India. In Ayurveda, plant has been used to treat various diseases. It is among Dashamoola group of herbs (group of ten roots). Gambhari is a known bitter tonic and its fruits as general tonic in weakness. It treats vata and pitta diseases. The roots, fruits and the leaves of Gambhari have great medicinal value therefore traditionally it was widely in use as anthelmintic, antimicrobial, anti-diabetic, anti-aging, analgesic, diuretic, hepato-protective and antiepileptic agent. The fruiting of this tree happens in May and June. Its roots comprise yellow thick, oil, resin an alkaloid and little benzoic acid. Fruits consist of butyric acid and tartaric acid, sugar and little tannin. Its leaves contain luteolin, which is an antioxidant classified as a flavonoid. Its fruit is sweet, bitter, cooling, diuretic, tonic, aphrodisiac, alternative astringent to the bowels, promote growth of hairs, useful in vata, thirst, anaemia, leprosy, ulcers. It balances Vata and Pitta Doshas. In Charak Samhita, Shushrut Samhita and Vagbhatta, the plant has been used as ingredient of Shothahara, Dahaprasahmana, Virechanopaga, Sarivadi and Brihat Panchamula. In recent time, work has been carried out to evaluate pharmacological activity of plant extract and characterization of its bioactive chemical constituents. It has been reported to exhibit anticancer potential against cancerous cell C6 glioma and HL-60 cells. Plant has been reported to exhibit anti-fungal activity against Trametes versicolor, Fomitopsis palustris, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium notatum and Candida albicans. It has been used for treatment of bone fracture, hypertension and regeneration of β-cells. The main chemical constituents of G. arborea in clude lignans, iridoid glycoside, flavonoids, flavons, flavone glycoside and sterols. Research work in the direction of isolation and characterization of the chemical constitu ents responsible for various medicinal properties of G. arborea should be car ried out. Present paper provides the beneficial directions to explore further applications of G. arborea.