A review on Ziziphus mucronata Willd (Rhamnaceae)
commonly used to treat infections and
inflammation-related conditions in southern Africa
Accepted 24th
June, 2019
Salmon A. Adebayo and P. Masoko*
Faculty of Science and Agriculture, Department of
Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology, University
of Limpopo, Private Bag X1106, Sovenga 0727, Limpopo,
South Africa.
In under-resourced areas of developing countries, a
significant number of people are heavily reliant on
medicinal plants for primary health care needs. Extracts
of Ziziphus mucronata are among the widely used
ethnomedicine to treat infections and relief pain. The
focus of this review is to collect all available
information on the ethnomedicinal uses, pharmacology and
cytotoxicity of the extracts of Z. mucronata.
Information was sourced from online search engines such
as Google scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, Web of
Science, academic books and published thesis etc.
Extracts of the root, bark, leaves and fruits are used
to treat microbial infections, type-2 diabetes, malaria,
some types of cancer as well as analgesics. Absolutely,
extracts of Z. mucronata possess additional
medicinal benefits such as anti-inflammatory,
anti-microbial, anti-plasmodial and anti-helminthic. The
observed pharmacological activities are attributed to
the constituent cyclopeptide alkaloids and other
phytochemicals present in various parts of the plant.
The isolated cyclopeptide alkaloids were found to
possess potent anti-microbial properties. The plant
species is widely distributed across Africa, and there
are no reports of a threat to its existence in the wild.
This under-utilised plant species is widely distributed
in Africa, and its extracts are used to treat various
diseases. Reports on the biological activities of the
extracts may partly support its ethnomedicinal uses but
other potential biological activities are yet to be
explored. Also, the mode of action of the isolated
compounds is not fully known. Phyto-compounds with
proven biological activities and relatively safe profile
could be used as templates for the development of potent
drugs.
This is an open access article
published under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Cite this article as: Adebayo SA, Masoko P
(2019). A review on Ziziphus mucronata Willd (Rhamnaceae) commonly used
to treat infections and inflammation-related conditions in southern Africa.
Acad. J. Med. Plants. 7(6): 135-145.
