Efficacy of Ethno-herbal Medicines with Anti-inflammatory and Wound Healing Potentiality: A Case of West Bengal, India

Inflammation is the hallmark of several immune defence mechanisms against pathogenic as well as non-pathogenic challenges. However, uncontrolled inflammation can often lead to chronic pathological conditions such as diabetes, autoimmunity, cancer, and other cardiovascular diseases. Present anti-inflammatory drugs pose serious physiological threats in the long run, showing severe side effects and thus, there is a huge demand for alternative drugs. Several medicinal plants used by different ethnic, indigenous, and tribal communities across the world show anti-inflammatory and wound-healing capabilities. One such indigenous community of Sub-Himalayan Bengal of India is the Rajbanshi community, who have established their own folk medicine system. This chapter discusses in detail the traditional Rajbanshi healers, the medicinal plants they use, their preparation of the medicinal formulation, as well as route and dose of administration. Plants used to treat various inflammatory ailments such as allergy, common cold, diabetes, skin diseases, cut, burn, gastrointestinal problems, and wound healing properties are enlisted in this chapter. The study also evaluates seven of the plants surveyed for judging their capability to scavenge free radicals, inhibit delayed-type hypersensitivity, and stimulate antibody production in the murine model. This chapter provides an opportunity to unravel new anti-inflammatory drugs with the potential for immunotherapeutic applicability.