Abstract

A REVIEW ON MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITY POSSESSED BY MURRAYA KOENIGII

Gagandeep Kaur*, Jyotsana Sharma, Lovepreet Singh, Satnam Singh and Vinay Kumar

ABSTRACT

“Medicine is food and food is medicine” is the best way to describe on how the ailments were cured by using the plants during the ancient period of time. India is perhaps the largest producer of medicinal herbs and is rightly called the “Botanical garden of the World”. It is the land of several medicinal plants and herbs that are traditionally used to cure diseases. Murraya koenigii, is one such plant, also called the curry leaf. It grows throughout the Indian subcontinent. It has wide culinary use and is one of the main components of formulations in the traditional Ayurvedic system. Plants have been used in traditional medicine for several thousand years. This tree is having many diseases protecting ingredients (natural compounds) which can be used as a natural source to make newer, alternative and innovative medicines. The present review incorporates the description of M. koenigii, its phytochemical constituents and various pharmacological activities of isolated compounds as well as bioactivity of extract studies carried out by various researchers.

Keywords: M. koenigii, phytochemistry, biological activity.