A Review: Active Principals Isolated from Medicinal Plants and Their Activity

An attempt has been made to list some of the active principals extracted and purified from medicinal plants. These medicinal plants are traditionally used in Indian Medicinal System ie Ayurveda.Terminalia arjuna is a very important plant used as medicinal plant in the Ayurveda. It has been reported for antihepatotoxic, antiimplantation and antifertility activities1,2. It has been observed that many of these compounds are very frequently used for the cure of rare diseases. Like resperine isolated from Rouwolfia serpent is a well-known active principal used for the cure of hypertension3 . Camptothecin which is an alkaloid isolated from Camptotheca acuminate is known to be used for the cure of cervical and overian cancer treatment4 . a-amyrine and Lupeol acetate isolated from medicinal plant Alstonia scholaris are reported to exhibit antifertility activity5,6