Medicinal Uses of Flowers: A Comprehensive Review Based on Nighantus

Ayurvedic medical system is a treasure of medicinal preparations both single or combined formulations and herbal preparations represent majority of them. Flowers are one of the useful parts of plant sources. Hence, purpose of this study was aimed to collect the classical references of commonly available flowers which have been mentioned in Ayurveda Nighantus for its medicinal uses. Results shows that, most of commonly available flowers have clear classical references and they are rich in most of medicinal values which are useful in day-to-day clinical practice. Flowers can be collected easily without causing any harm to the plant and also most flowers are palatable, having pleasant smell and attractive colour. Therefore, it can be concluded that the flowers are one of the useful parts of a plant in treating diseases and ‘flowers as medicine’ will be a good approach and adds value to the Ayurveda. Key words: Pushpayurveda, Floral Therapy, Flowers, Pushpa, Flowers as Medicine, Jain Mahaveer.