Abstract

TINOSPORA CORDIFOLIA: SOURCE OF NUTRACEUTICALS

*Ashish Srivastava and Neelmani Chauhan

ABSTRACT

Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia) is a popular medicinal plant spread across the tropics. Its effectiveness in therapy is well known globally. Lesser known are its dietary benefits. Tinospora cordifolia (Guduchi) belonging to family Menisper- maceae has a wide array of bioactive principles in exploring nutraceuticals from plant materials. The herb is known for its therapeutic efficacy and used in treatment of dyspepsia, diabetes, fever, urinary problems, jaundice, chronic diarrhoea, cardiac disease, dysentry, helmenthiasis, skin diseases, leprosy and many more diseases. The current study is undertaken to explore and establish the phytochemistry and pharmacological activity of T. cordifolia. In India, the genus Tinospora consists of four species and Tinospora malabarica Miers. The starch obtained from the stem of the plant known as “Guduchi-satva” is highly nutritive and digestive and used in many diseases. is the major adulterant for Amrita by the local herbal healers, who are adulterating without standardization. This paper presents a critical review on biological description and chemical constituents of T. cordifolia with special emphasis on its ayurvedic properties and applications in the pharmaceutical sector. This review article describes the prominence of a medicinal plant Tinospora cordifolia in therapeutics such as use of crude extract of plant for the amelioration of various diseases, morphology, growth constraints, biochemical composition, biological activities.

Keywords: Tinospora cordifolia, Alkaloids, Medicinal plant, Immunomodulatory, Botanical description, Medicinal properties, Plant Extract.