REVIEW ARTICLE e-ISSN: 2349-0659 p-ISSN; 2350-0964 Sphaeranthus indicus Linn.: A Pharmacological Review Devendra S. Shirode 1 *, Pranav Devidas Shevkar 1 , Bindurani L G P Ram 2 A BSTRACT Sphaeranthus indicus (SI) Linn. belonging to the family Asteraceae, the whole plant as well as various parts of plant widely used for curing various ailments in the Indian traditional system of medicine. This review focused on review of various pharmacological activities of SI such as anxiolytic, antioxidant, antidiabetic, analgesic, antipyretic, hepatoprotective activity, antimicrobial, antiulcer, anti-infammatory, neuroleptic, antiviral, ovicidal, anthelmintic activities, and various other activities. Based on vast medicinal use and preclinical trials of this plant, the reported pharmacological activities of SI are covered in this review for exploring the enormous medicinal potential of this plant. keywords: Asteraceae, Sphaeranthus indicus Linn., Sphaeranthus hirtus, Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. pharmacological activities, Sphaeranthus mollis Roxb. Asian Pac. J. Health Sci., (2021); DOI: 10.21276/apjhs.2021.8.4.04 ©2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. I NTRODUCTION Long before the pre-historic period, utilization of plants has been done for medicinal purposes. It is considered to be very safe as almost none or minimal side efects are observed in treatment with the medicinal plant. It was believed by ancient scholars that the number of health-related problems and diseases can be cured using herbs (National health portal). [1] Sphaeranthus indicus (SI) Linn. is an herbal medicinal plant widely used by humankind for curing various illnesses. It is mainly obtained from damp places like rice felds. [2] It is traditionally called Gorakhmundi which has been used in past for the natural treatment of various diseases. SI whole plant is used for the formulation of the medicine. It is pungent and bitter, traditionally been used for glandular swelling in the neck, urethral, discharge, jaundice liver, gastric disorder, chest pain, cough, and bowel complaints. [1-3] Synonyms of SI Linn. are Sphaeranthus mollis Roxb. and Sphaeranthus hirtus Wild. V ERNACULAR N AMES SI Linn. is known by diferent names in diferent parts of India. [1] Hindi: Gorakhmundi and mundi Sanskrit: Mahamundi, shravani, tapasvini, mundi, and hapus Marathi: Barasavodi and gorakhmundi Bengali: Chagulnadi and ghorkmundi Gujarati: Bodiokalara, mundi, and dorakhmundi Tamil: Kottakaranthai Telugu: Boddatarupa and boddasoram Urdu: Kamdaryus English: East Indian globe thistle Malayalam: Adakkamanian, attakkamanni, and mirangani Santal: Belaunja Panjabi: Ghundi, khamadrus, and mundibuti Undari: Mundi T AXONOMIC C LASSIFICATION Table 1: Taxonomical classifcation Kingdom Plantae Subkingdom Viridaeplantae Phylum Tracheophyta 1 Department of Pharmacology, Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Pharmacy, Akurdi, Pune, India 2 School of Pharmacy, Vishwakarma University, Kondhwa, Pune, Maharashtra, India Corresponding Author: Dr. Devendra S. Shirode, Department of Pharmacology, Dr. D. Y. Patil College of Pharmacy, Akurdi, Pune, India. E-mail: pranav231199@gmail.com/devendrashirode@ dyppharmaakurdi.ac.in How to cite this article: Shirode DS, Shevkar PD, Ram BLGP. Sphaeranthus indicus Linn.: A Pharmacological Review. Asian Pac. J. Health Sci., 2021;8(4):32-35. Source of support: Nil Conficts of interest: None. Received: 12/05/21 Revised: 18/06/21 Accepted: 12/07/21 Subphylum Euphyllophytina Infraphylum Radiatopses Class Magnoliopsida Subclass Asteridae Superorder Asteranae Order Asterales Family Asteraceae Genus Sphaeranthus Species Indicus G EOGRAPHICAL D ISTRIBUTION , H ABITAT , AND P ROPAGATION Geographical Distribution Geographically, SI is mainly originated from India and distributed all over the country, while as a weed, it spreads throughout the other parts of world in tropic regions such as Malaysia, China, and Australia. [2] SI is mainly obtained from damp places such as rice fields, ascending to an altitude of about 1500 m, and is abundantly seen there as a weed. It has different flowering periods depending on the regional environmental conditions. Its flowers are developed from September to March in India while in Java country, flowers are developed from May to February. [3]