A Review on Caralluma Species: The Medicinally Important Plants

Abstract

Plants have been used by Humans since prehistoric times for many purposes. Humans are dependent on plants not only for nutrition purposes but also for the treatment of different diseases. Caralluma species belong to therapeutic plants and are used to cure different diseases like diabetes and cancer. It is mainly used as a vegetable in most parts of the world, some species has limited flowering instead their stems show the spiky projections. They are mainly found in the dry regions of the world as in India, Pakistan, Saudia Arabia etc. All parts of the plant are rich in phytochemicals. The Caralluma plants mostly contains a known antitumor drug i.e. pregnane glycoside. Being an edible plant, Caralluma spp are considereded safe to use and non-toxic to humans and other animals. There are many pharmaceutical benefits of this plant. Their single plant has the potential to treat many diseases, many research works are conducted to find out their medicinal importance and chemical composition using different in vitro and in vivo studies. Basically, they possess anticancer, anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, immune-suppressant, anxiologic, nootropic and appetite suppressant properties. Thus Caralluma spp can be regarded as therapeutic agent because of their chemical constituents.