PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF SIDA CORDIFOLIA: A REVIEW

ABSTRACT

                The application of plants as medicines date back to prehistoric period. Herbal drugs constitute a major share of all the officially recognized systems of health in India viz. Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy and Naturopathy. Sida cordifolia L. is a perennial shrub belonging to family Malvaceae widely distributed throughout the tropical and sub-tropical plains all over India. It has wide variety of therapeutic and pharmacological uses like analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-stress, anti-diabetic along with anticancer activity. Apart from these it also has many uses like emollient action, demulcent, bronchodilator, vaso-relaxant properties etc. Due to all of these properties this plant is one of the cornerstones in ethnopharmacology and ethanobotanical sciences. Pharmacological screening of botanicals is necessary for viewing new chemical entities which is designed to search for novel drug actions at an early stage of drug development and this review highlights about all the pharmacological activities of Sida cordifolia L.

Key words: Ayurveda, Sida cordifolia, Ethnopharmacology, Homeopathy.