Medicinal Uses of Sweet Flag you must have to know

Abstract

Sweet flag (Acorus calamus) has a long history of usage and is used for a variety of traditional and ethnomedicinal purposes. The bioactive components alpha and beta-asarone are the most prevalent among the constituents. Sedative, CNS depressant, anticonvulsant, antispasmodic, cardiovascular, hypolipidemic, immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, cryoprotective, antioxidant, antidiarrheal, antimicrobial, anticancer, and antidiabetic activities of A. calamus rhizome have been reported. The purpose of this review is to look into the traditional usage and pharmacological qualities of A. calamus.

Introduction

Cure of diseases through medicinal plants is always a silent feature. In the past, the roots, herbs, leaves and fruits of most of the natural plants were used as a source of drugs to treat and prevent most of the diseases. Similarly, sweet flags were recommended and consumed by the individuals for a number of health benefits. Sweet flag But in this study emphasis was on the beneficial effect of sweet flag on stomach pain, diarrhoea, convulsions and many more diseases. Keeping in view the importance of natural drugs, research work was conducted to investigate the health benefits of sweet flags and create awareness about the sweet flag.

Materials and Methods

The research work was conducted by

reviewing the most acceptable literature. Comprehensive and detailed information about the sweet flag were conducted from these sources. The notations were also cited. Correct botanical nomenclature and their families were done by using available literature.

Table 1: Taxonomical Classification of Acorus calamus

Table 2: Vernacular Names

Parts Used

The parts used in most of the experimental studies are the leaves, roots (rhizomes) and stem of the plant. In Traditional systems of medicine mostly the rhizomes are used.

Constituents of Phytochemicals

Glycosides, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, polyphenolic chemicals, mucilage, volatile oil, and bitter principle have all been found in photochemical experiments.

Calamen, clamenol, calameon, asarone, and sesquiterpenes have all been found in the plant’s glucoside, alkaloid, and essential oil. Along with eugenol, pinene, and camphene, it also includes a bitter glycoside known as acorine. Asarone, asarone, elemicine, cisisoelemicine, cis and trans isoeugenol and their methyl ethers, camphene, Pcymene, selinene, bgurjunene, cadinene, camphor, terpinen4ol, aterpineol, and a calacorene, acorone, acrenone, acoragermacrone 2, 4, 5trimethoxybenzaldehyde, 2, 5 dimethoxy benzoquinone, acoradin, galangin.

Uses

Sweet flag (Araceae family) Acorus calamus (A. calamus) is an useful and medicinal plant that has been utilised in herbal treatments and human health care preparations in Asia for a long time (Meena et al., 2010).

A. calamus has a long history of use in India and China for medicinal purposes. (Mukherjee and colleagues, 2007). A.calamus has been utilised in India to treat digestive disorders, stomach pains, and cancer (Gaidhani et al., 2009), as well as to prevent hallucinogen adverse effects (Devi and Ganjewala, 2011). Ayurvedic medicine considers A.calamus to be an essential plant since it is regarded as a “rejuvenator” for the neurological system and a therapeutic agent for digestive issues. Because of the tranquillizing properties of cis-isoasarone,

A.calamus has been referred to as a “wonder medication” in popular European literature on medical herbs and is commonly used as a nervine in traditional medicine. (Meena and colleagues, 2010).Because of its favourable benefits on memory and learning function, A. calamus extract has been utilised in traditional Chinese medicine; also, this plant has been shown to have an anti-aging effect in senescence (Nishiyama et al., 1994; Palani et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 1994). Various extracts of A. calamus have anti-diabetes, anti-proliferative, immunosuppressive, hypolipidemic, and anti-carcinogenic effects in human lymphocytes, and the rhizomes and leaves have anti-carcinogenic activity (Mehrotra et al., 2003).This plant’s ethanolic rhizome extract has sedative, analgesic, hypotensive, and respiratory depressant characteristics (Agarwal et al., 1956). This plant has been shown to exhibit antifungal (Rajput and Karuppayil, 2013), antibacterial (Rahamoz- Haghighi et al., 2014), and anti-inflammatory properties (Kim et al., 2012; Tiwari et al., 2010) properties.

Conclusion

A.calamus is one of the natural medicinal plants which is

used for a number of health benefits. As drugs have a variety of side effects, these plants are used to treat many ailments i.e stomach pain, gas, bloating, convulsions, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer, inflammation, wound healing, and many more. So a new trend is going to use these plants as a source of medicine rather than continue to use the drugs causing many more side effects.

References:

https://www.lybrate.com/topic/sweet-flag-vacha-benefits-and-side-effects

http://www.indianspices.com/spice-catalog/sweet-flag.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/acorus-calamus

https://www.apnikheti.com/en/pn/agriculture/horticulture/medicinal-plants/sweet-flag