Nature's Pharmacy: The Medicinal Value Of Various Plants

The Ayurvedic tradition believes that every plant offers medicinal value of some kind. In fact, some plants are believed to be more valuable than others because all their parts--leaves, flowers, fruit, stem, bark, etc.--are of medicinal value.

- Neelanjana Singh

The Moringa or drumstick tree is one such example. Another example is the Arjuna tree, the bark of which makes an excellent heart tonic. Ayurvedic literature features an extensive list of more than 7500 medicinal plants, as more and more continue to be discovered.

While modern medicine and biotechnology have progressed by leaps and bounds, many of these medicinal plants remain unmatched in their value. The list of such plants is very long, but I’ll take you through some of the commonly used ones.