Abstract
Plants have been used as Spice in the world since prehistoric periods. Different endemic and plants from other countries are exported to enhance the taste of the culinary preparations. For the taste of culinary dishes, India is one of the prime countries, where, herbs from various other countries are also imported or naturalized to fulfill the need. The present paper deals with the medicinal, antioxidant, and ethnobotanical uses of 42 plants used as spices in different parts of India. The study is based on the market and hotel surveys in different parts of India for the uses of spice plants in regular use which are useful for human health in different ways improving respiratory, digestive, and cardiac diseases. Different parts used in health management are stem bark, leaves, fruits, seeds as well as flowers either in fresh or dried form. The dried rhizomes of Curcuma longa, and Zingiber officinale, stem bark of Cinnamomum Verum, leaves of Cinnamomum tamala, dried fruits of Coriandrum sativum, Illicium griffithii, Myristica fragrance, Piper longum, Piper peepuloides, Piper nigrum, Zanthoxylum armatum, and so on, which are recorded from markets and the fresh bulb of Allium cepa and Allium sativum, leaves of Coriandrum sativum, which are commercially cultivated and the fresh roots of Houttuenia cordata, fresh leaves of Eryngium foetidum, Zanthoxylum rhetsa, and fresh berries of Litsea cubeba are recorded from the tribal markets in the Northeatern states of India, such as Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and so on. Besides, culinary uses, the local traditional healers in different parts of India also use these spice herbs for various treatments such as asthma, arthritis, cough, cardiac, and digestive troubles. Various pharmaceuticals also use spice herbs in the manufacture of different medicines. The present study expresses the use of spice plants is beneficial through inclusion in culinary preparations to enhance the taste as well as to improve health.

Key words: Antioxidant; cough; digestive; Eryngium foetidum; Illicium verum; Zanthoxylum rhetsa; spices