Medicinal plants of The Holy Quran -I Teen (Ficus carica L.)
*Shaukat Saeed Khan
Department of Botany, & Microbiology, Saifia College of Science & Education, Bhopal-462001 (India) email:drsskhan2011@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The creator of this universe has created millions of organisms upon this crust of earth, which are being exploited by human beings since their origin. In the Holy Quran, the divine treatise, a number of items have been mentioned which are for the benefit of human race including sizeable number of plants which are extremely beneficial for us in general and therapeutics in particular. One such plant species is Ficus carica L., commonly called as Fig or Anjeer. Its Arabic name is Teen. Researchers have found that, not only the fruits of this plant are extremely useful in the treatment of various ailments, other parts are also efficacious in controlling several diseases. Apart from other therapeutic uses, the fig is being used as purgative, aphrodisiac, antiinflammatory, diuretic expectorant, antianxiety agent etc. The present paper deals with various medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological trials carried out by various workers on this plant. As said earlier, The Holy Quran mentions a number of bounties which the creator has bestowed on us, to be utilized for our betterment. It is planned to bring out a detailed account of such plants in a series of publications. The first one is focused on Fig (Ficus carica L.), Teen in Arabic. Vernacular names of fig (F. carica) : Arabic (Teen); Bengali (Dumur); English (Fig); Greek (Feige); Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi and Urdu (Anjeer); Kannad (Anjura); Kashmiri (Anjur); Malyalam (Peralle); Persian (Anjir); Tamil (Attit Pazham); Telugu (Athi Pallu, Anjoru); Sanskrit (Kakudumberika);