Acanthaceae

Acanthaceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species. Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Nees is a medicinal herb of Asian countries used in many traditional medicinal systems for the treatment of diarrhea, flu, leprosy, leptospirosis, malaria, rabies, upper respiratory infections, sinusitis, syphilis, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, etc. Andrographolide is extracted and isolated from the plants of Andrographis paniculata. Andrographolide and its derivatives exhibited a wide range of biological properties, including anticancer activity, antibacterial activity, hepatoprotective activity, antiinflammatory activity, antiviral activity, antimalarial activity, antidiabetic activity, insecticidal activity, etc.