Antisnake venom properties of medicinal plants

Snake envenoming and consequent deaths are of common occurrence in tropical and subtropical regions. Approximately 1,25,000 deaths are witnessed every year and WHO has declared it as a neglected tropical disease in 2009. The immunotheraphy is the only treatment available, but it has side effects like serum sickness, pyrogen reactions moreover the non availability and storage problems has rendered the mankind to look in others sources to treat snake bite deaths. This has led to the investigation of naturally available antidotes or the herbal antidotes. The plants were used by humans from centuries to treat diseases which have become an ancient knowledge which are passed through the generations. Many scientific investigations have been carried out on the grounds of folk knowledge. Some of the plants include Aristolochia indica, Andrographis paniculata, Hemidesmus indicus, Vitis vinifera etc., many metabolites have also been isolated which show promising pharmacological inhibitory effect on the toxic snake venom. Further exploration and characterization of molecules would be able to provide an alternative to the existent Antisnake venom. © 2015, International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science. All rights reserved.