Antirheumatic Properties of Medicinal Plants: A Review

Medicinal plants are widely used for the treatment of rheumatism. Around 80% of world are depends on traditional medicine. Rheumatism is a chronic, autoimmune diseases, that affects own immune system and healthy tissue which are caused inflammation. Rheumatism risk factors include hormonal, genetic, environmental, and nutritional, and socio-economic factors, ethnicity, infections, smoking, and so on. In this review use of some traditional medicine plants against rheumatism such as Aerva lanata, Mahuca longifolia, Acetaea spicata, Aesculus indica, Hemidesmus ndicus, has been discussed. This review includes the mechanism of rheumatism including inhibition of cartilage degradation. Various active compounds such as lignans, flavonols, terpenes and sterols have been found in medicinal plants, which has been found to be beneficial for the treatment of rheumatism.