Acacia arabica (Babool) - A Review on Ethnobotanical and Unani Traditional Uses as well as Phytochemical and Pharmacological Properties

In the last few decades there has been an exponential growth in the field of herbal medicine. Herbal medicines have been the basis of treatment and cure for various diseases and physiological conditions in traditional methods of practice such as Unani, Ayurveda and Siddha. A large fraction of the world population, especially in the developing and underdeveloped countries still depends mainly on the traditional system of medicine. Medicinal plants are the valuable and cheap source of unique phytochemicals which are frequently used in the development of drugs against various diseases. The use of plants and plant products in medicines is getting popularized because the herbal medicines are cheap, easily available and have natural origin with higher safety margins and lesser or no side effects. In Unani system of medicine Babool (Acacia Arabica) is considered as plant having medicinal properties on various system of human body. Different parts of the plant including Bark, root, gum, leaves, pod and seeds have medicinal properties. The present review is an attempt to highlight the various ethnobotanical and Unani traditional uses as well as phytochemical and pharmacological reports on Acacia arabica to which commonly known as Babool. Keywords: Acacia arabia, unani, Traditional, Phytochemicals, Pharmacological.