Ethno-veterinary and herbal practices have been in use for centuries, resulting in transfer of knowledge to the common people of the society including the farming sector. The main advantages lie in the facts that they are accessible, easy to prepare and administer, with little cost involved. The Atharva-Veda mentions turmeric and yellow birds into which jaundice is charmed to enter, leaving the human patient. From such beginnings, man being guided by the instincts of the lower animals and the intuition of the best among his own species, has evolved the present complex system of the healing science in the service of health and life that finds its appropriateness in the context of cattle farming too. Even though the modern developments in therapeutic field brought about a rapid decline in traditional medicine, the plant-based remedies are still having a crucial role as potential source of therapeutic aids in health systems all over the world for both humans and animals. Nowadays immune-based therapies are gaining more importance than monovalent approaches which are having limited benefits. As far as the cattle industry is concerned, herbal plants are used as health promoters and at the same time for the treatment of diseases. Herbs are used variously for infections as anthelmintic and acaricidals and have got implications in surgical and gynaecological
interventions as well as in bovine mastitis. Apart from the aforesaid uses, an array of herbal plants have been reported which are having immunomodulatory effects like modulation of cytokine secretion, histamine release, immunoglobulin secretion, class switching, cellular co receptor expression, lymphocyte expression, phagocytosis, and so on. The present review deals with wide variety of such plants responsible for safeguarding cattle health from every aspect.
Key words: Cattle health, Ethno-Veterinary, Herbal Medicine , Immunomodulation
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