Traditional and Contemporary uses, Phytochemistry and Pharmacology of Psoralea corylifolia Linn.

Abstract

Background: Bakuchi (Psoralea corylifolia Linn.) is an endangered and traditionally important medicinal plant of the family Fabaceae. It is used worldwide for the treatment of several ailments due to the presence of various bioactive constituents that are mainly concentrated in the seeds and fruits of plants. It has been used since time immemorial as a popular drug for shvitra (leukoderma), kustha (skin diseases), osteopathy, rejuvenation, aphrodisiac, etc. Materials and Methods: Primarily, classical texts of Ayurveda including Brihat trayi (The greater triad), Laghu trayi (The lesser triad), and Nighantu (Lexicons) were reviewed. Establishing an overview, library resources, and online collections of books and other online databases such as Pubmed Central, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, ERIC, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, DOAJ, JSTOR, Henari, Google Scholar, NepJoL were explored with search words like “Bakuchi”, “Psoralea corylifolia” for its botanical characteristics, traditional and contemporary uses, pharmacognosy, phytochemical constituents, pharmacology, toxicology, and agricultural and miscellaneous aspects. Results and Discussion: It was found that Psoralea corylifolia has been used since the Vedic period for the treatment of various skin diseases like psoriasis, and vitiligo in Ayurveda and several metabolic and systemic diseases in Traditional Chinese Medicine, by its various names and formulations. Furthermore, under appropriate dosages no any toxic effect of the plant was reported in an animal experiment conducted by Uthirapathy and Ahamad. Conclusion: The seed of P. corilifolia Linn is commonly used in skin diseases such as Switra (leukoderma), Vicharchika (psoriasis) whereas anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-lipogenic, anti-tuberculous, anti-carcinogenic, memory enhancing, anti-venom and aphrodisiac has also been reported as its major pharmacological activities. Clinical trials can be further conducted to evaluate the pharmacotherapeutics of P. corylifolia to develop the well-established evidence-based therapy