Andrographis (Andrographis paniculata) as a tool for helping with Immune support

Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees, a renowned herb medicine in China, is broadly utilized in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for the treatment of cold and fever, sore throat, sore tongue, snake bite with its excellent functions of clearing heat and toxin, cooling blood and detumescence from times immemorial. Modern pharmacological research corroborates that andrographolide, the major ingredient in this traditional herb, is the fundamental material basis for its efficacy. As the main component of Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees, andrographolide reveals numerous therapeutic actions, such as antiinflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, antihyperglycemic and so on. However, there are scarcely systematic summaries on the specific mechanism of disease treatment and pharmacokinetics. Moreover, it is also found that it possesses easily ignored security issues in clinical application, such as nephrotoxicity and reproductive toxicity. Thereby it should be kept a lookout over in clinical. Besides, the relationship between the efficacy and security issues of andrographolide should be investigated and evaluated scientifically. In this review, special emphasis is given to andrographolide, a multifunctional natural terpenoids, including its pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, toxicity and pharmaceutical researches. A brief overview of its clinical trials is also presented. This review intends to systematically and comprehensively summarize the current researches of andrographolide, which is of great significance for the development of andrographolide clinical products. Noteworthy, those un-cracked issues such as specific pharmacological mechanisms, security issues, as well as the bottleneck in clinical transformation, which detailed exploration and excavation are still not to be ignored before achieving integration into clinical practice. In addition, given that current extensive clinical data do not have sufficient rigor and documented details, more high-quality investigations in this field are needed to validate the efficacy and/or safety of many herbal products.

Andrographispaniculata (kalmegh) is also known as "king of bitters", is an herbaceous plant belongs to family Acanthaceae. The therapeutic effect is due to presence of diterpenoid lactone derivatives of A. paniculata mainly andrographolide. The main purpose of this review includes detailed (past and present) study of A. paniculata and its most important component andrographolide a diterpenoid lactone with respect to its botany, phytochemistry, molecular docking analysis and pharmacological effects i.e., therapeutic benefits. In reference to the search, we also compiled variety of dosage forms available, which are made up of A. paniculata extract and Andrographolide such as tablets and capsules. This review also discusses reported methods of extraction of phytoconstituents, pharmacokinetics of main components, their molecular docking analysis data and main therapeutic applications with their proposed mechanism of actions in various diseases. According to data collected, A. paniculata is becoming more and more valuable as a therapeutic herb.