Medicinal plants are used from ancient times for treatment of various ailments. Aesculus hippocastanum (Horse chestnut), is the popular and most valuable tree native to the South East Europe. It's seed extracts and their concentrates contain phytocompounds like flavonoids, polyphenols, triterpenoid saponin glycosides (escin), epicatechin, tannins, kaempferol, esculin, fraxin, carbohydrate, essential fatty acids (linoleic acid), oleic acid and purine bases (adenine and guanine). Due to these vital phyto-constituents, horse chestnut is used in phytomedicine for the prevention and treatment of diverse disorders as in venous congestion in leg ulcers, bruises, arthritis, rheumatism, diarrhoea, phlebitis etc. We collected the pharmacological applications of Aesculus hippocastanum L. extracts and escin as the cheif bioactive compound and their uses in traditionally and clinically for the management of various disorders. This review describes the efficacy of A. hippocastanum L. extracts and their bioactive compounds. So in the furtue this plant may be useful for the alternative treatment measure for various ailments via incorporating either extract or escin into novel delivery systems for improving the social health in future and would provide improved quality of life.
Keywords: Aesculus hippocastanum; bioactive compound; escin; pharmacological properties.