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Review Article
Phytochemical and
Pharmacological Studies of the Genus Tacca: A
Review
Jin-He Jiang1,2,
Hong-Mei Yang1, Yi-Liang Wang2 and
Ye-Gao Chen1*
1Department of Chemistry,
2Department of Library, Yunnan Normal
University, Kunming 650500, PR China
*For correspondence:
Email:
jinhejiang@126.com,
ygchen48@gmail.com
Received: 5 April 2013
Revised accepted: 6
February 2014
Tropical
Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, April 2014;
13(4):
635-648
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/tjpr.v13i4.23
Abstract
Tacca is an important genus
comprising of approximately 15 species of the medicinal
plants (Taccaceae). The plants are used in traditional
medicine to relieve pains of the body and stomach, as an
antidote for food poisoning as well as for their
analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory activities.
Chemical studies have underlined more than 120
constituents have been isolated from Tacca, including
steroidals, diarylheptanoids, phenolics, flavonoids,
sesquitepenoids, triterpenoids and starch. Steroidals
and diarylheptanoids showed potent bioactivities, such
as cytotoxic, microtubule-stabilizing, NF-κB activation
and PPAR transcriptional and insecticidal activities.
The starch from T. leontopetaloides and T. involucrata
have high amylase content and showed potential use in
food and drug system.
Keywords: Tacca, Taccalonolides,
Tacca starch, Microtubule-stabilizer, Anti-cancer |