Abstract

STUDY OF PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF COCCINIA GRANDIS L.- A REVIEW

Sandhya R. Lanke* and Gunjegaonkar M. B.

ABSTRACT

Traditional system of medicine consists of large number of plants with various medicinal and pharmacological importances and hence represents a priceless tank of new bioactive molecules. Coccinia grandis L., (Ivy gourd) of the family Cucurbitaceae is distributed in tropical Asia, Africa and is commonly found in India, Pakistan and Srilanka. The Cucurbitaceae family is commonly known as gourd, melon, and pumpkin family. It is a rapidly growing, perennial climber or trailing vine. Traditionally different parts of this plant namely the roots, leaves and fruits are used in folklore medicine for several purposes like jaundice, diabetes, wound healing, ulcers, stomach ache, skin disease, fever, asthma, cough. The phytochemical analysis of the showed that the terpenoids, reducing sugar, flavonoids and proteins were found to present in significant quantity. The leaf and its constituents have been reported to possess anthelmintic activity, antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activity, antimicrobial activity, antihyper-glycemic activity, hepatoproetcective activity. The present review is the pool of information that highlights its various pharmacological activities.

Keywords: Coccinia grandis (Ivy Gourd), Antioxidant, Antidiabetic activity, Antibacterial activity.