The plants have formed the basis of folklore remedy since the beginning of human civilization.
The cumulative human endeavor and experience over a period of thousands of years developed
into well to organize traditional medicine systems viz. Ayurvedic, Unani, Chinese amongst others.
Across the world, traditional medicine is either the mainstay of health care or serves as a complement
to modern drugs. In view of worldwide use of traditional medicines, World Health Organization
launched ‘WHO-Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023’ for the development of strong policies
regarding knowledge-base, safety, quality-control and effectiveness of traditional/alternative therapeutics
for national health systems. Besides their use in traditional medicine, plants have always been a
good source of modern drug/pharmacologically active molecules. More than half of the modern pharmaceuticals
are either plant isolates or their derivatives. The plant-based drugs are not only effective,
but have better compatibility with human biological systems because of more biologically relevant
chemistry, hence lesser side effects. Some of the species of genus Ammannia (Lythraceae) have been
reported for their magical medicinal values. Many herbal formulations containing Ammannia spp. have
been patented for treatment of serious diseases/disorders like cancer, spinal disease, human female infertility,
chronic tonsillitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, treatment of bladder stones, urinary tract infections,
dermatitis etc. The uses of Ammannia spp. in traditional medicine have been further verified by
the biological activities of their extracts as well as isolation of bioactive phytomolecules. The current
review provides details about Ammannia spp.; its use in folklore remedy, herbal formulations, biological
activities of extracts, isolation of bioactive phytomolecules and SAR study of semi-synthetic derivatives
to analyze the possibility of new drug molecules of plant origin.