Nepal has a rich tradition of plant-based knowledge on healthcare. A large number of plants, plant extracts, pastes and plant powders are used by tribals and folklore traditions in Nepal for treatment of several type of diseases. We validated the plant based traditional medicines and prepared their different doses forms such as tablet, capsule, ointment, cream, gel, microsphere, transdermal patches etc by taking knowledge of long history of herbal usage for the clinical management of a variety of diseases in indigenous cultures on Nepal. The major pharmacological strategies such as phytochemical and antimicrobial screenings, antioxidant, wound healing, analgesic, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory properties of plants have been carried out in the discovery of herbal formulation of potential clinical value.
Mango and orange peel showed remarkable results in cancer cells, which could be a very potential anticancer agent against human cervical carcinoma and gastric carcinoma and cervical carcinoma both respectively. Diploknema butyracea seed oil and its formulated 5% ointment showed significant effect as analgesic, anti-inflammatory and wound healing agents. Psidium guajava leaf extract can be considered for transdermal patch for better release for the management of diabetes. Similarly, extract of Utrica dioica showed satisfactory result as antidiabetic drug in Streptozotocin induced diabetic mice. Similarly, ointment prepared by fusion method from Gaultheria fragantissima oil showed analgesic effect, spread ability, stability tests but negative result for irritancy test. Plants screened for high tannin and phenolic contents with significant antioxidant property were formulated into wound healing ointment. 10% w/w of Bauhinia variagata, Rhododendron arboretum, Myrica esculenta ointment found to be more effective in healing wound than 1% w/w Framycetin cream. Furthermore, in another experiment Camellia sinensis, Punica granatum, Hordium vulgare plant extract showed potent anticancer activity. LD50 of C. sinensis decreases from 24 hrs to 48 hrs for both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cancer cell lines. In addition, microsphere loaded gel of Lactuca sativa is prepared by dispersion and then formulated into gel, which showed potential anti-inflammatory activity, anxiolytic activity, anti-oxidant activity and anti-microbial activity. Conclusively, medicinal plants of Nepal are very important for the aspect of their anticancer, wound healing, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic and actimicrobial properties. These results will be useful in the validation of the clinical application of above mentioned herbs and the development of novel herbal therapeutics from the same.
