Somashekar Shetty
Manipal University, India
Title: Wound Healing and Indigenous Drugs-Physical and Biochemical Aspects
Biography
Biography: Somashekar Shetty
Abstract
Introduction- Traditional medicine, especially herbal medicine has recently been receiving heightened interest all over the world. Man from the very beginning has been aware of the problems of the life and has been taking care of health through diet and drugs for which plants were used extensively. Screening of the traditional medicinal plants and others is expected to provide drugs for antibiotic resistant infectious diseases, new epidemics, various types of cancers, wound healing, aging related ailments and AIDS. Efforts are also underway to genetically engineer the plants to acquire the life saving medicinal properties. Recent WHO studies indicate that over 30% of the world’s plant species have been used for medicinal purposes. The products relating to about 20,000 higher plant species are being marketed world over. About 120 chemical compounds of plant origin have been developed into modern pharmaceuticals. The main objectives of this study is to experimentally verify some indigenous drugs claimed to promote healing of wounds on a scientific basis and to identify the effects of plant materials on processes and attributes of wound healing. There have been no reports on any established clinically exploitable chemical agent promoting normal wound healing in the nutritionally and endocrinologically normal individual. However, many folk medicines and indigenous drugs are reported or claimed to influence wound healing. Some of the drugs mentioned in text and certain others which are used traditionally in and around of our state of Karnataka and which have been claimed to have healing properties, were subjected to experimental assessment.