COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW ON ETHANOBOTANICAL USES, PHYTOCHEMISTRY AND PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF MELIA AZEDARACH LINN

Medicinal plants, since times immemorial, have been used in virtually all cultures for therapeutic purposes. The widespread use of herbal remedies and healthcare preparations obtained from commonly used traditional herbs and medicinal plants have been traced to the occurrence of natural products with medicinal properties. In the present review, an attempt has been made to collect the botanical, phytochemical, ethnomedicinal, pharmacological and toxicological information on Melia azedarach L. which is used traditionally as an anthelmintic, diuretic, emmenagouge, expectorant, vermifuge, used in piles, used as astringent, used in hysteria, leprosy, and in scrofula. Medicinally it has been shown to possess various pharmacological activities like antifungal, anti-malarial, antibacterial, hepatoprotective, anti-oxidant, anti-fertility, anthelmintic, antipyretic and cytotoxic activities. The available literature on the M. azedarach L. revealed that this plant contains many phytochemical constituents including alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins, glycosides, phenolic compounds, flavonoids and rutins. The aim of this article is to review those medicinal and pharmacological properties of M. azedarach which have been or still are being learned. The present review is therefore, an effort to give a detailed survey of the literature on its traditional, phytochemical and pharmacological properties.