Traditional use of plants against leprosy in India: a review of the recent literature

Abstract

Leprosy is an age-old disease. Throughout history the people afflicted have often been ostracized by their communities and families. The present review deals with the enormous amount of ethnobotanical work performed in the last few years involving use of different plants against leprosy in India. From a variety of literature sources the data has been compiled mentioning the scientific name of plants , their geographical locations, name of the user ethnic groups, mode of administration, parts used, dosage, etc. depending on availability of information. These traditional knowledge of plants in medicine was losing and it may preserved that should provide a base for its further phytochemical research and its conservation