BOSCIA ALBITRUNCA: REVIEW OF ITS BOTANY, MEDICINAL USES, PHYTOCHEMISTRY, AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES

Alfred Maroyi Alfred Maroyi

doi:10.22159/ajpcr.2019.v12i10.35337

Alfred Maroyi Alfred Maroyi

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2019.v12i10.35337

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Abstract

Boscia albitrunca is a medium-sized tree widely used as herbal medicine in Southern Africa. The current study critically reviewed the botany, medicinal uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacological activities of B. albitrunca. Literature on botany, medicinal uses, phytochemical, and biological activities of B. albitrunca was collected from multiple internet sources including Elsevier, Google Scholar, SciFinder, Web of Science, PubMed, BMC, Science Direct, and Scopus. Complementary information was gathered from pre-electronic sources such as books, book chapters, theses, scientific reports, and journal articles obtained from the university library. This study revealed that the species is used as herbal medicine in 75.0% of the countries in Southern Africa where the species is indigenous. The bark, leaves, and roots of B. albitrunca are mainly used as herbal medicines for constipation, epilepsy, hemorrhoids, headache, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome, skin diseases, syphilis, and as ethnoveterinary medicine. Ethnopharmacological research identified phenolic compounds, alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, tannins, and triterpernoids from leaves of B. albitrunca. The crude extracts of the species and the compound martynoside isolated from B. albitrunca exhibited antibacterial and antifungal activities. B. albitrunca should be subjected to detailed phytochemical, pharmacological, and toxicological evaluations aimed at correlating its medicinal uses with its phytochemistry and pharmacological activities.

Highlights

Boscia albitrunca (Burch.) Gilg & Gilg-Ben. is a medium-sized evergreen tree belonging to the Capparaceae or caper family
B. albitrunca is regarded as a multipurpose tree species in Southern Africa [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] used as coffee or tea substitute, source of dye or tannin, fodder, ethnoveterinary medicine, herbal medicine, famine food, food additive, and shade
B. albitrunca appears to be an important source of herbal medicine within its distributional range in Southern Africa and there is need for formal documentation and systematic research which is beneficial to indigenous and traditional systems of herbal medicine [29,39,40]

Summary

Introduction

Boscia albitrunca (Burch.) Gilg & Gilg-Ben. is a medium-sized evergreen tree belonging to the Capparaceae or caper family. B. albitrunca is regarded as a multipurpose tree species in Southern Africa [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] used as coffee or tea substitute, source of dye or tannin, fodder, ethnoveterinary medicine, herbal medicine, famine food, food additive, and shade. It is within this context that this review was undertaken aimed at reviewing the botany, medicinal uses, and biological activities of B. albitrunca so as to provide baseline data required in evaluating the therapeutic potential of the species.

Results

Conclusion