A literary review of single drug Curry leaves (Muraya koinigii) commonly used in indigenous medicine

Abstract

The curry leaf tree is native to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Andaman Islands. The use of curry leaves is described in early Tamil literature dating back to the 1st to 4th centuries AD. Its use is also mentioned in Kannada literature, where the word 'curry' originates from the Tamil 'Kari' for spiced sauces. Curry leaves are extensively used in South India and Sri Lanka for cooking to provide a flavouring for curries, vegetable, fish and meat dishes, soups (rasams), pickles, chutneys, scrambled eggs and curry powder blends. Recent research has shown that the curry leaf tree contains special compounds that inhibit an enzyme present in our digestive systems called the pancreatic alpha-amylase enzyme. By blocking the enzyme, the rate at which glucose enters the blood stream from the intestine can be lowered. For the search of the ancient and the recent Unani literature author visited several libraries including library of the Ajmal Khan Tibbia College and Hospital, Maulana Azad library of Aligarh Muslim University, library of the Nizamiya Tibbia College and Hospital, Hyderabad, India. The databases utilized information from journals indexed / available through Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed and Science Direct. Relevant facts were also obtained from general databases such as Google. It is evident that the curry leaves are widely used by the different traditional medical practitioners for curing various diseases in their everyday practice. This study focuses on the medicinal action and use of curry leaves in the Unani system of medicine.