Alka Sharma

Among the medicinal plants, out of 30,000 species estimated to be used by the indigenous and ethnic societies of world, around 10,000 have been used by traditional systems of medicines of respective countries such as in Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy medicines in India. Natural products are the important source of bioactive compounds and have potential for the development of novel therapeutic agents. Over the last decade there has been a growing interest in drugs of plant origin.  A wide range of products can be obtained from plants i.e., perfumes, insecticides, flavoring agents, coloring agents, medicines etc. Lamiales order has two important family Lamiaceae and Acanthaceae among others and both the families are pan tropical in distribution. The Acanthaceae is a large (ca, 4000 species in some 230 genera) pantropical family. The present paper reviews some of the important plants of these families having medicinal value.