Lepidium sativum Linn.: a current addition to the family of mucilage and its applications.

Mucilage from the last decades has been found to be very attractive, interesting and useful in development of desired pharmaceutical dosage forms. Various applications of plant based mucilage have a wide potentiality in drug formulations. Lepidium sativum Linn. (family: Brassicaceae) is one of the mucilage containing fast growing, edible annual herb. Its various parts (roots, leaves and seeds) have been used to treat various human ailments. It mainly contains alkaloids, saponins, anthracene glycosides, carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, flavanoids, and sterols as chief phytochemical constituents. Its seed extracts have been screened for various biological activities like hypotensive, anti-microbial, bronchodilator, hypoglycemic and allelopathic, whereas its seed coat mucilage has been isolated using different methods to make it effective excipient of desired functionality as a part of pharmaceutical applications. Through keen references of reported work on Lepidium sativum Linn., in this review, we have focused on its seed coat mucilage isolation methods, chemical constituents, pharmacological profile and versatile application of Lepidium sativum Linn.