Natural drugs from the plants are gaining popularity because of several advantages such as often having fewer side-effects, better patient tolerance, being relatively less expensive and acceptable due to a long history of use. Besides herbal medicines provide rational means for the treatment of many diseases that are obstinate and incurable in other systems of medicine. For these reasons several plants have been investigated for treatment of skin diseases ranging from itching to skin cancer. So far 31 plants have been reported to be effective in various skin diseases during the past 17 years (1995-2012) of research work, which are mentioned below.
Herbals have great potential to cure different kinds of skin diseases. More than 80% of people in India depend on traditional health care and use different plant based products for curing skin related problems. Compared with the conventional allopathic drugs , they have relatively low cost and can be of great benefit to the population of India in general and poor people in particular. Herbals are a rich source of active ingredients and can be safer and cost effective treatment for skin diseases ranging from rashes to dreadful skin cancer. More than 50% of plant species useful for treatment of skin diseases appear to be restricted to forests, so activities such as deforestation, habitat destruction, urbanization etc., may pose a serious threat to these species. Conservation of these plants with the help of local participation and carrying out of extensive research in this respect to broaden the prospects of herbal drugs in skin disease treatment is the need of the hour.
