A Systemic Review of Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis Using Herbal Plants

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease of unknown aetiology that affects 0.5% of the population and can result in disability owing to joint destruction, characterized by joint synovial inflammation and progressive cartilage and bone destruction resulting in gradual immobility. Rheumatoid arthritis risk factors include genetic, hormonal, environmental and nutritional, and socio-economic factors, age and sex, ethnicity, smoking, infections, and so on. Treatment of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis is practiced based on traditional medicine in many countries. The greatest disadvantage in the presently available potent synthetic drugs lies in their toxicity and reappearance of symptoms after Discontinuation. With limitations of existing drug molecules herbal drugs are gaining interest among RA Patients. Medicinal plants are plants containing inherent active ingredients used to cure disease or relieve symptoms of arthritis. The present review also focuses on the medicinal plants that interact with the mediators of inflammation and are used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).