Traditional Medicinal Plants: Safe and Efficacious Potential Drugs in the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune, chronic inflammatory disorder that affects the synovial tissues of the joints. Whilst the standard treatment regimen involves non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, disease-modifying antirheumatic agents and glucocorticoids attenuate the symptoms. However, the long-standing use of all these drugs causes adverse effects, which leads to the research on medicinal plants. History shows that many medicinal plants are an integral part of various traditional medicine systems, thus facilitating an alternative form of therapy in various parts of the world. Since ancient civilization, many of the medicinal plants that used as popular remedies are available abundantly in Asia. In this chapter, we are presenting the information on various medicinal plants found in Asia that are reported to be having anti-arthritic activity. Scientific studies revealed that herbs exert beneficial effects in treating arthritis by numerous cellular mechanisms, including downregulation of proinflammatory cytokines like TNF-α, IL-6, and NF-κB, oxidative stress suppression, suppression of cartilage degradation with degradative metalloproteinases, and increasing antioxidant performance. A variety of phytoconstituents from diverse chemical categories such as flavonoids, lignans, coumarins, terpenes, glycosides, phytoestrogens, sesquiterpene lactones, anthraquinones, alkaloids, and thymoquinone are extracted from these medicinal plants. Additionally, in this chapter, the pharmacological actions of these plants were also discussed. 

Keywords: Analgesic, Antiarthritic, Autoimmune disease, Cytokines, Herbs, Inflammation, Medicinal plants, Phytoconstituents, Rheumatoid arthritis, Traditional medicines.