Is it possible to treat Kidney diseases and associated malfunctions using herbals? If yes, What specific research has been done in this area and which plants are useful?
Dear Alok Some of the plants for kidney diseases are Licorice( Glychyriza Mulethi),Berginia cilliata,Trifolium pratense (Red Clover),Petroselemium crispum (Parseley Roots),Betula tree bark,Dioscorea deltoidea D.alata.
An interesting compound to mention is L-Carnosine, not exactly a plant compound, but an endogenous dipeptide that can also be supplemented orally. Carnosine inhibits glycation which lies often at the root of kidney disorders. It also breaks existing protein-sugar rests-bonds in tissue. The supplementation of Carnosine leads to a higher carnosine plasma level, despite the fact that the dipeptide is broken up by carnosinase.
"Not exactly a plant compound": Carnosine is only expressed in animal tissue. However, there is a Chinese manufacturer that offeres a "vegetarian-suitable carnosine" by taking the two building blocks, i.e. beta-alanine and L-histidine, from plant sources and combine them by a hydrolysis reaction. This, to my belief, is as close as you can get to the plant kingdom...
Dear Dr. Alok in ayurveda there are so many drugs which are using to treat kidney diseases, some of them are Boerhavia diffusa, Tribulus terrestris etc to get research paper you can use pubmed or dhara.com etc.
Look up Kata Gokhru (dry thorn) and Chandraprabha Vati (herbals and minerals combo). Also Copper external treatment in form of cream (see Waleda on the web) over kidneys.