Journal
MOLECULES
Volume 27, Issue 12, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/molecules27123849
Keywords
anti-inflammatory; medicinal plants; tropical; aboriginal people; inflammation; inflammatory; phytochemistry
Funding
- James Cook University Postgraduate Research Scholarship (JCUPRS)
- NHMRC [APP1183323]
- James Cook University
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Australian tropical plants have been a valuable resource of food and medicine for Aboriginal people, with over 900 medicinal plants recorded. Many of these plants are used traditionally to treat inflammation and related conditions. Research has identified several compounds from these plants with anti-inflammatory properties, showing potential for the development of novel therapeutics.
Australian tropical plants have been a rich source of food (bush food) and medicine to the first Australians (Aboriginal people), who are believed to have lived for more than 50,000 years. Plants such as spreading sneezeweed (Centipeda minima), goat's foot (Ipomoea pes-caprae), and hop bush (Dodonaea viscosa and D. polyandra) are a few popular Aboriginal medicinal plants. Thus far, more than 900 medicinal plants have been recorded in the tropical region alone, and many of them are associated with diverse ethnomedicinal uses that belong to the traditional owners of Aboriginal people. In our effort to find anti-inflammatory lead compounds in collaboration with Aboriginal communities from their medicinal plants, we reviewed 78 medicinal plants used against various inflammation and inflammatory-related conditions by Aboriginal people. Out of those 78 species, we have included only 45 species whose crude extracts or isolated pure compounds showed anti-inflammatory properties. Upon investigating compounds isolated from 40 species (for five species, only crude extracts were studied), 83 compounds were associated with various anti-inflammatory properties. Alphitolic acid, Betulinic acid, Malabaric acid, and Hispidulin reduced proinflammatory cytokines and cyclooxygenase enzymes (COX-1 and 2) with IC50 values ranging from 11.5 to 46.9 uM. Other promising anti-inflammatory compounds are Brevilin A (from Centipeda minima), Eupalestin, and 5 '-methoxy nobiletin (from Ageratum conyzoides), Calophyllolide (from Calophyllum inophyllum), and Brusatol (from Brucea javanica). D. polyandra is one example of an Aboriginal medicinal plant from which a novel anti-inflammatory benzoyl ester clerodane diterpenoid compound was obtained (compound name not disclosed), and it is in the development of topical medicines for inflammatory skin diseases. Medicinal plants in the tropics and those associated with indigenous knowledge of Aboriginal people could be a potential alternative source of novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics.
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