Original Articles
Umoh UF, Umoh RA, Enema OJ, Ek
Abstract
Inflammation is seen as a protective response of tissues to harmful stimuli and inflammatory disorders are synonymous to man’s existence owing to lifestyle changes, environmental hazards and genealogical influences. In many folk medicines, crude drugs are the first line treatment in these conditions. The aim of this review was to survey some anti-inflammatory constituents from plant sources, their mechanism(s) of actions and their structural types using some published academic articles. The survey revealed many chemical moieties as anti-inflammatory agents and also implicated alkaloid, flavonoid, terpenoid, steroid, coumarin and anthraquinone as the major chemical classes of compounds with various mechanisms of actions that are associated with anti-inflammatory processes. This study lends credence to the fact that there are many chemical entities in plants that could serve as anti-inflammatory agents and also concludes the involvement of many chemical classes of compounds as anti-inflammatory in activity.