Prashant Kumar*

Amity Institute of Virology and Immunology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India

*Corresponding Author: Prashant Kumar, Amity Institute of Virology and Immunology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India.

Received: April 25, 2018; Published: May 30, 2018

Citation: Prashant Kumar. “Betel Leaf: A Source of Ingredients having Potential to Combat Influenza”. Acta Scientific Microbiology 1.6 (2018).

  Ayurveda is one of the oldest medical systems that originated in India and promotes the use of herbal compounds for the treatment of various ailments. Several literatures on Ayurveda mentions the use of piper betel leaves (Vedic name: saptsira) for the treatment of diseases like bad breath, boils and abscesses, conjunctivitis, constipation, headache, itches, mastitis, mastoiditis, leucorrhoea, otorrhoea, swelling of gum, rheumatism, cuts and injuries. The plant is cultivated in most of South and Southeast Asia and valued both as a mild stimulant and for its medicinal properties. The phytochemical investigation of betel leaves has shown the presence of alkaloids, amino acids, carbohydrate, tannins and steroidal components in them apart from the vitamins, minerals and essential oils.

Copyright: © Prashant Kumar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.