A Review onAdansonia digitata-Potential Herb

Abstract

The plant Adansonia digitata belongs to the Bombacaceae family and is generally known as African Baobab. It is a tree species native to Africa. The common English names for the Baobab include Dead-rat tree, Monkey bread tree, Upside-down tree, and Cream of Tartar tree. The Baobab is a traditional food plant in Africa, but is little known elsewhere. The tree is a massive deciduous tree up to 25 m in height and may live for up to hundred years. Every part of the Baobab tree is reported to be useful. The seeds, leaves, roots, flowers, fruit pulp and bark of Baobab are edible. The African Baobabs fruit is 15 to 20 centimeters or 6 to 8 inches long. It contains 50% more calcium than spinach, has high anti-oxidants and has three times the vitamin C of an orange. It is sometimes called a super fruit. Adansonia digitata consists of following constituents identified from various parts which are terpenoids, flavonoids, sterols, vitamins, saponins, tannins, amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids. Baobab leaves, bark, roots, fruit pulp, and seeds are used for multi purposes in many parts of Africa and were found to show interesting medicinal properties including anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-pyretic activity, anti-oxidant, anti-diarrhoea and anti-dysentery. The present article summarizes review on the plant, its phytochemistry and its pharmacological activity which have been reported.