A Literary Review on Herbs Used in Siddha Medicine for Hypertension

Hypertension commonly referred to as ‘high blood pressure’, is a medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated. In this modern era several antihypertensive drugs are available. But these medicines have many side effects such as palpitation, tachycardia, hyponatremia, hyperkalemia, increased risk of developing diabetes, and reduced renal function and life threatening complications. Globally about 80% of the population using herbal medicines for their primary health care, particularly in developing countries. In herbal medicine the treatment for essential hypertension can bring the blood pressure level in to the normal range. WHO recently encourages, utilization of herbs and traditional herbal medicines, for national healthcare programs, as they are easily available at lower cost and comparatively safe medicines.In this article such herbs used in Siddha medicine have been studied and discussed for the therapeutic management for hypertension. In Siddha system the disease hypertension was described as Rakthaazhutham, Rakthathikkam, Azhutham. RakthakothippunoiandNaadiirukkam.All herbs reviewed in this article are useful in the treatment of hypertension. Among studied herbs, Rough chaff(Acyranthesaspera), Indianpennywort (Centella asiatica),Coriander(Coriandrumsativum),Cumin (Cuminumcyminum),Cardamom (Elettaria cardamom),Roughbryon (Melotheriamaderaspatn),Pepper (Piper nigrum), Arjun tree(Terminaliaarjuna), Land caltrops (Tribulusterrestri), Winter cherry (Withaniasomnifera), Ginger (Zingiberofficinalis) has Antihypertensive effect and cardiac tonic. Ginger (Allium sativum) and Deodar (Cedrusdeodara)reduces the blood cholesterol level and decreases the hypertension. Water lily (Nympheaalba)and Long pepper Piper longumshowed ACE inhibitor activity and reduces the blood pressure.