Traditional Uses and Properties of Indian Medicinal Plants in the Treatment of Vitiligo

Traditional health care practices have retained their importance for many centuries and are utilized by ethnic populations, based on traditional knowledge (TK). India is endowed with ethnic groups that have accumulated an extensive knowledge of traditional plant-based medicines. They have exploit these resources. India’s contribution to the development of traditional health care systems, including Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani (ASU), continues to be exemplary. Vitiligo is an acquired chronic depigmentation, a skin disease of unknown etiology which usually occurs due to the selective destruction of melanocytes. Despite recent significant research achievements in developing viable therapies to combat this social stigma, there are still no approved therapies to treat it in modern systems. In the Indian systems of medicine (ISM) plants provide both raw material for formulations and are used as single drugs to treat Vitiligo (Leucoderma). Plant species, like; Ammi majus (Atrilal), Psoralea corylifolia (Babchi), Senna tora (Panwad), Senna absus (Chaksu), Eclipta prostrata (Bhangra), Ficus carica (Anjeer) and Plumbago zeylanica (Sheetraj Hindi), provide a practical, productive, and affordable source of traditional medicine/drugs to cure stigmatic diseases, among them Vitiligo.