Herbal treatment for cardiovascular disease the evidence based therapy.

Abstract

More than 2000 plants have been listed in the Traditional (Herbal/Alternative) systems of medicine and some of these are providing comprehensive relief to the people suffering from cardio-vascular diseases, specially "hyperlipidemia" and "ischemic heart disease". WHO reports indicate that around eighty percent of the global population still relies on botanical drugs and several herbal medicines have advanced to clinical use in modern times. Based on these findings, present review is written to identify the "Pharmacology and Cardio-vascular Application" of four commonly used plants in Pakistan. These include, Crataegus oxycantha, Inula racemosa, Terminalia arjuna and Commiphora mukul. The selection of the plants in the present study is primarily based on their chemistry and pharmacological properties including toxicology reported in various research articles and reviews. Some very interesting findings have been observed and thus recorded and reported in this review.