Abstract
Plants from the genus Mercurialis have a long history of use as herbal remedies in traditional Spanish medicine. The growing interest in the conservation of knowledge related to biodiversity has encouraged us to review the bioactive phytochemicals from the four most widespread Mercurialis species in the Iberian Peninsula (M. annua L., M. ambigua L., M. perennis L., and M. tomentosa L.). First, the medicinal uses of these four species throughout Spain were compiled, and then a bibliographical search on their chemical composition was conducted in an attempt to justify their reported traditional uses. We found that most of the medicinal uses of Mercurialis spp. are supported by scientific evidence. This includes its antidiabetic and antihypertensive properties attributable to the flavonoid rutin and narcissin, respectively; its benefits in the treatment of skin dark spots, attributable to mequinol; and its anti-inflammatory activity, attributable to scopoletin, kaempferol, squalene, and cycloartenol. This review contributes to the validation of the medicinal uses of Mercurialis spp. in Spain and provides some new avenues for further investigations on the biological activity of this interesting medicinal plant.
Highlights
The genus Mercurialis L. belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family
M. tomentosa is a shrub, arefrequent annual herbs which grow in urban areas or modified agricultural fields
We found a great variety of medicinal knowledge concerning four Mercurialis species
Summary
In Spain, it is represented by seven species The most widespread species are M. annua, M. ambigua, M. perennis, and M. tomentosa. Mercurialis spp. have been used since ancient times in traditional Spanish medicine. We reviewed the chemical composition of the four aforementioned species published [5,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. We reviewed the chemical composition of the four aforementioned species in order to to elucidate which be the the basis basisof ofthe theclaimed claimedtherapeutic therapeutic activity in order elucidate whichphytochemicals phytochemicals could could be activity of of Mercurialis in in Spanish folklore
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