Medicinal plants from Siddha system of medicine useful for treating respiratory diseases

Siddha system of medicine (SSM) is one of the oldest traditional systems of medicine, which has been originated from India and is practiced mostly in the southern part of this country for treating various diseases including even chronic conditions. However, it is relatively veiled to the scientific community as compared to other traditional systems such as Ayurveda (a popular Indian medicine), TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) and Kampo (traditional Japanese medicine). Respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are a serious health problem, which are increasing rapidly worldwide. The current therapy has its own shortcomings and notable adverse effects. There is an intense need to search some safer alternative therapy for treating these epidemic diseases. The objectives of this article is, first, to increase the awareness about SSM to the scientific community, thus inviting more scientific studies on this system, and secondly, to list certain medicinal plants of this system which are commonly used for treating respiratory diseases. To explore the possibility for obtaining potential drugs from these plants, certain future perspectives have also been discussed.