INTRODUCTION:

There is increasing interest in the health and wellness profit of medicinal plants. Herbal medicines are currently in demand and their popularity is increasing day by day. Natural products from plants, animals and minerals have been the basis of the treatment of human disease. Herbal medicines are medicinal products that enclose plant materials as their pharmacologically active components¹. For many herbal medicines, the definite ingredients that establish the pharmacologic activity of the product are as yet incompletely characterized. Current research in natural products have acknowledged herbal medicine’s exceptional situation in the growing field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and have provided a background for clinicians to approach patients using herbal medicines^2,3.

Gonorrhoea is an infectious sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae which affects the mucosa of the reproductive and urinary tracts. Discharges from infected mucous membranes are the source of transmission of the bacteria during sexual contact or during channel of a newborn through the birth canal. The site of infection relates to the type of sexual contact, occurring in the mouth and throat after oral-gential contact, vagina and penis after gential intercourse or rectum after recto gential contact. Males generally bear inflammation of the urethra with pus and throbbing urination.

The prostate gland and epididymis may also become infected. In females infection may classically occurs in vagina often with a discharge of pus. Both infected males and females may port the disease without any symptoms however until it has progressed to a more advanced stage^4,5.

In this review article, the data on several ethanomedicinal plants have been collected from various sources of literature, which are enumerated in Table 1. These plants are still used traditionally as herbal drugs against gonorrhoea.

CHEMICAL STRUCTURE OF PLANT CONSTITUENTS

Tyrosine Purpurin

Betasitosterol Betaine

Stigmasterol Cucurbitacin

TABLE 1: ETHANOMEDICINAL PLANTS FOR THE TREATMENT OF GONORRHOEA ^6-9

S.N.	Botanical Name (Common Name)	Family	Part used	Chemical Constituents
1	Abutilon indicum (Kandhi)	Malvaceae	Leaves	B-sitosterol, Oleanic acid
2	Acacia farnesiana (Gand babol)	Mimosaceae	Leaves	Farnesol, Tyramine
3	Biophytum sensitivum (Lajalu)	Oxalidaceae	Roots	Galacturonic acid, Rhamnose
4	Bixa orellana (Latkan)	Bixaceae	Seeds	Bixin,E-geranylgeraniol,
5	Butea monosperma (Palash)	Papilionaceae	Bark	Stigmasterol, Nonacoranoic acid
6	Calophullum inophyllum (Surpunika)	Guttiferae	Seeds	Neoflavone, Xanthones
7	Cardiospermum halicacabu (Heart pea)	Sapindaceae	Plant Juice	Proanthocyanidin, Apigenin
8	Ceiba pentandra (Safed semal)	Bombacaceae	Root	Xylan, Lignin
9	Cocculus hirsutes (Jalayamani)	Menispermaceae	Leaves	D- Trilobine,DL- Coclaurine
10	Cochlospermum gossypium (Gabdi)	Cochlospermaceae	Gum	Glucuronic acid, Rhamnose
11	Corchorus depressus (Baphuli)	Tiliaceae	Seed	Depressogenin, Glucopyranoside
12	Corchorus olitorius (Koshta)	Tiliaceae	Leaves	5-Caffeoylquinic acid, Quercitin
13	Dalbergia sissoo (Shisham)	Papilionaceae	Leaves	Monomethyl-L-arginine, caffeic acid
14	Gynocardia odorata (Chaulmogra)	Flacourtiaceae	Fruit	Gynocardic acid, Palmitic acid
15	Hibiscus abelmoschus (Mushkdana)	Malvaceae	Seeds	Famesyl acetate, Ambrettolides
16	Hibiscus asculentus (Bhindi)	Malvaceae	Fruits	Ascorbic acid, Carbohydrates
17	Hibiscus rosa sinensis (Jasun)	Malvaceae	Root	B-sitosterol, Malvelic acid
18	Linum usitatissimum (Alsi)	Linaceae	Bark	Uronic acid, Galactose
19	Michelia champaca (Champa)	Magnoliaceae	Flowers	B-carryophyllene, a-humulene
20	Plumeria acutifolia (Chameli)	Apocyanaceae	Root bark	Benzyl benzoate, Hexadecanoic acid
21	Portulaca quadrifida (Chaunlayi)	Portulacaceae	Leaves	Oxalic acid, Ascorbic acid
22	Prunos cerasos (Cherry)	Rosaceae	Seed	Caryophyllene,Y-bisabolene
23	Salacia reticulata (Pitika)	Rhamnaceae	Roots	Salacinol, Kotalanol
24	Semecarpus anacordium (Belatak)	Anacardiaceae	Roots	Anacardoside, Semecarpuflavone
25	Shorea robusta (Sal tree)	Dipterocarpaceae	Bark	Benzofuran, Shoreaphenol
26	Sida acuta (Kareta)	Malvaceae	Roots	B-phenethylamines, Betaine
27	Sida cordifolia (Barial)	Malvaceae	Seeds	Ephedrine. Phytosterol
28	Sida spinosa (Bariara)	Malvaceae	Leaves	Rutin, Vasicinone
29	Sterculia foetida (Jangli badam)	Sterculiaceae	Fruit	Tristearin, Linoleic acid
30	Tephrosia purpurea (Sharapunkha)	Papilionaceae	Leaves	Purpurin, Maackiain
31	Thespesia populnea (Bhendi)	Malvaceae	Bark	Flavonoids, Saponins
32	Trichosanthes palmate (Mahakal)	Cucurbitaceae	Fruit	Trichotetrol, Cucurbitacin
33	Tribulus terrestris (Chhota gokhru)	Zygophyllaceae	Fruit	Terrestrosin A,E , Tigogenin
34	Trichosanthes palmate (Mahakal)	Cucurbitaceae	Fruit	Trichotetrol, Cucurbitacin
35	Rourea santaloidus	Connaraceae	Roots	Rourinoside, B-sitosterol

CONCLUSION:

Plants are the primary source of raw material for plant based medicine since prehistoric times. The traditional herbal medicines receiving great importance in healthcare sector. Each population has its own system of conventional medicine and they exploit natural resources around their habitats for a variety of medicinal purposes¹⁰. Thus, there is a great necessitate in searching and developed newer herbal drugs from ethanomedicinal plants which acquires noteworthy activity against gonorrhoea. The most important meeting point of the study was to explore the nature and characteristics of information used as well as information looking for behavior of medicinal plants in the treatment of gonorrhoea. It can be concluded that these plants can be used to discover natural products that may serve as lead for the development of new pharmaceuticals addressing the major therapeutic needs for the treatment of gonorrhoea.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

Yogesh Shivhare and Priya Singh, the authors, would like to communicate their warm thanks to Dr. A.K. Singhai, Principal, Lakshminarain College of Pharmacy, Bhopal, Dr Neeraj Upmanyu, Professor, RKDF College of Pharmacy, Bhopal, and Mr. Rakesh Punekar, Professor and Vice-Principal, RKDF College of Pharmacy, Bhopal, for the help rendered in all academic aspects and constant support to carry out this work successfully.

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Received on 02.07.2010 Modified on 23.07.2010

Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 4(2): February 2011; Page 182-183