Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Review of Ethnopharmacology and phytochemistry of Acacia ataxacantha

Alfred Maroyi

Medicinal Plants and Economic Development (MPED) Research Centre, Botany Department, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa;

For correspondence:- Email: amaroyi@ufh.ac.za Tel:+27406022320

Accepted: 17 October 2018 Published: 30 November 2018

Citation: Maroyi A. Review of Ethnopharmacology and phytochemistry of Acacia ataxacantha. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(11):2301-2308 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i11.28

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To provide ethnopharmacological and phytochemical properties of Acacia ataxacantha as initial steps of assessing medicinal value and importance of the species in tropical Africa.

Methods: Information on the medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of A. ataxacantha was collected from several sources including books, theses, scientific reports and journal articles obtained from internet sources such as SciFinder, Web of Science, Pubmed, BMC, Elsevier, Science Direct, Scielo and Scopus.

Results: Acacia ataxacantha is an important herbal medicine in tropical Africa used against abscesses, backache, cough, dental caries and toothache, headache, malaria, pneumonia, sores and wounds, and stomach problems. The chemical constituents of A. ataxacantha include alkaloids, anthracene derivatives, carbohydrates, coumarins, flavonoids, lignan, naphtoquinone, polyphenols, reducing sugars, saponins, steroids, tannins, terpenoids and triterpenoids. The biological activities demonstrated include antibacterial, antifungal, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, laxative and ulcero-protective.

Conclusion: The phytochemical properties and pharmacological activities of A. ataxacantha lend some support for the traditional medicinal applications of the species against several diseases.

Keywords: Acacia ataxacantha, Ethnopharmacology, Herbal medicine, Indigenous medicinal knowledge, Primary health, Tropical Africa