Since ancient times, plants have always been a reliable and important source of bioactive compounds used to treat several diseases, and thus play a central role in human health. In addition, medicinal plants are a rich source of bioactive secondary metabolites that have a wide range of medicinal uses. This is the reason why, currently, 90% of drugs come from natural or semisynthetic origins. Chemical diversity of plants made them one of the main sources for the extraction and purification of secondary metabolites. On the other hand, pain has always been a cause of concern to humans who searched for a remedy from natural sources, mostly from plants. In this respect, substances that relieve pain (algesia) can be described as analgesics (painkillers). Chemically diverse structures have been identified as pain relievers; they relieve pain through various mechanisms and act either centrally (opioids receptor agonism) or peripherally. Therefore, this chapter is intended to summarize the literature pertaining to plants and their constituents discovered with analgesic potential in the last four decades.

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BACKGROUND: The coal mining is one of the neglected sector and thus the coal miners work underhazardous conditions; and thus coal miners showed an increased prevalence of occupational healthproblems.OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the prevalence of respiratory health problems among cherat coalminers district Nowshera Pakistan, as the occupational protective measures were not according to theinternational standards as defined by WHO/ ILO.METHODOLOGY: A total of 400 coal miners were selected from the four study areas of Cherat, andthen interviewed/ examined for respiratory health problems along with Pulmonary Function Tests(PFTs) and Chest X-rays (CXR).RESULTS: The results showed that 52% of coal miners suffered from signs & symptoms of respiratoryhealth problems; and on Pulmonary Function Tests and Chest X-Ray showed 88% and 75.2%respectively.CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the prevalence of respiratory health problems were high amongthe coal miners thus immediate remedial measures were needed in time from the concerned authoritiesfor improving working conditions, conduct regular medical check-ups, provision of protectiveequipments, and dust control measures etc to reduce the burden of respiratory health problems amongcoal miners.KEY WORDS: Prevalence, Respiratory Health Problems, Pulmonary Function Tests, Chest X-rays,Coal Miners.