Abstract
plant based medicines have created much awareness in the today’s society due to their various well proven therapeutic effects and lack of side effects which has provoked the human to go back towards nature for safer herbal remedies. The plant, Withania coagulans Dunal is one of them which is used to cure various ailments and used in folk medicine. Withania coagulans Dunal commonly known as Indian cheese maker has been used for preparing a vegetable rennet ferment for making cheese in different parts of India. Different parts of this plant have been reported to possess a variety of biological activities. In Nothern India traditional healers use dry fruits of Withania coagulans for the treatment of diabetic patients. Withania coagulans Dunal. has been shown to exert hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, free radical scavanging, cardiovascular, central nervous system depressant, hepatoprotective, anti-inflamatory, wound healing, antitumor, immuno-suppressive, cytotoxic, antifungal and antibacterial properties. The twigs are chewed for cleaning of teeth and the smokes of the plant is inhaled for relief in toothache. A large numbers of phytochemicals have been isolated from Withania coagulans which are responsible for various pharmacological action of this plant. The present article aims in projecting a detailed review of the plant regarding its morphology, chemical constituents and pharmacological properties. It has also included therapeutic effects of the whole plant and its extracts and isolated withanolides