Urtica dioica (Stinging Nettle): A Pharmacologically Important Medicinal Plant Species of Himalayan Region

Abstract

Urtica dioica (Stinging nettle) belonging to the family Urticaceae is a medicinal plantfound in the Himalayas region from Kashmir to Kumaon region (Uttarakhand.). In Himalayan region, this plant is used for the daily purpose as food as well as to serve animals. It contains various phytochemicals like phenolic acid, coumarins, flavanols, bioflavonoids, Flavan-3-ols etc which is used to cure many diseases like arthritis, constipation, Pulmonary, Liver, Intestine, Kidney, Diabetes, Fungal infections, anti-inflammatory, internal injury and wounds. It also has hepatoprotective activity, anti‑hyperlipidemic activity, diuretic activity, antimicrobial activity, anticancer activity. Researchers have reported about 30 species with 47 genera and 1,300 species worldwide used to treat different diseases. Medicinal plants have proved to be the “backbone” of traditional medical system which signifies that developing countries depend upon medicinal plants for therapeutic use.

Nutritional composition and antioxidant capacity of Urtica hyperborea: A phytofood of Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, India

“…The findings of the study were in consensus with the earlier studies reporting a positive relationship between the antioxidant activity and polyphenolic compounds (Wong et al, 2006;Lizcano et al, 2010). The presence of health boosting properties like carotenoids, fatty acids, polyphenolic compounds, essential amino acids, chlorophyll, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals are also reported in U. dioica (Kregiel et al, 2018;Rawat et al, 2020). Overall, the plant U. hyperborea has an immense potential to be utilized as a phytofood due to its high nutritive values and presence of several antioxidative agents.…”

“…One such wildly sourced vegetable is Urtica sp., a well imbibed vegetable in traditional food culture known by the local name as "Bichubutti" in Himachal Pradesh (Thakur et al, 2020a), "Zwa or Zatsot" in Ladakh (Angchok et al, 2009;Nagar & Jain, 2016) and "Stinging nettle" in the Himalayan region (Rawat et al, 2020). Various Urtica sp.…”