Carissa opaca: A plant with great potential for future drugs for degenerative and infectious diseases

Emergence of new diseases and development of complications in the old ones, coupled with safety, efficacy and affordability factors associated with existing medicines, have necessitated continuous quest for new remedies. Plants being a virtually unending reservoir of potential bioactive natural products hold great hope for more effective, safer and affordable therapeutic agents. In order to facilitate these studies, it is therefore desirable to publish reviews on medicinal plants. The present review is an effort to cover ethnomedicinal properties and research work done on medicinal plant, Carissa opaca (Apocynaceae), which is traditionally used for a number of purposes, including jaundice, hepatitis, rheumatism and asthma. Pharmacologically, different parts of plant have been studied for various bioactivities, such as, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-cancer, antidiabetic, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective and cytotoxic. Phytochemical investigations have resulted in the isolation of many natural products including terpenoids and flavonoids. As the extensive literature review suggests, C. opaca holds great promise for novel therapeutic remedies for various degenerative and pathological ailments. More rigorous, in vitro and in vivo, analyses and clinical studies are, therefore, recommended.