LANNEA SCHIMPERI: REVIEW OF ITS BOTANY, MEDICINAL USES, PHYTOCHEMISTRY, AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES

Alfred Maroyi Alfred Maroyi

doi:10.22159/ajpcr.2019.v12i4.31970

Alfred Maroyi Alfred Maroyi

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2019.v12i4.31970

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Abstract

Lannea schimperi is a well-known fruit tree and medicinal plant in tropical Africa. The current study critically reviewed the botany, medicinal uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacological activities of L. schimperi. Literature on botany, medicinal uses, phytochemical and biological activities of L. schimperi were collected from multiple internet sources including Elsevier, Google Scholar, SciFinder, Web of Science, PubMed, BMC, ScienceDirect, 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 a source of fiber, edible fruits, and herbal medicine. Phytochemical compounds identified from the species include cyclohexenones, cardanols, alkaloids, anthocyanins, anthracene glycosides, carbohydrates, cardiac glycosides, carotenoids, condensed tannins, coumarins, flavonoids, phenolic glycosides, phenols, polyoses, polyuronoids, reducing sugars, saponins, steroids, tannins, triterpenoids, and volatile compounds. Pharmacological research revealed that extracts and phytochemical constituents isolated from L. schimperi have anesthetic, antibacterial, antifungal, anticoccidial, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, antioxidant, anti-trypanosoma, antiulcerogenic, cytotoxicity, and toxicity activities. L. schimperi should be subjected to detailed phytochemical, pharmacological, and toxicological evaluations aimed at correlating its medicinal uses with its phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of the species.

Highlights

Despite considerable efforts over the past decades to document the medicinal uses and active ingredients of medicinal plants [24], there is still a lack of detailed documentation on the medicinal uses and phytochemical and pharmacological properties of many medicinal uses in tropical Africa [28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54]. This is an urgent priority in view of the fragility of oral-indigenous knowledge and the rapid rate of urbanization and acculturation in the continent [22,23,24]. It is within this context that this review was undertaken aimed at summarizing the botany, medicinal uses, and phytochemical and biological activities of L. schimperi so as to provide baseline data required in evaluating the therapeutic potential of the species
Bark decoction of L. schimperi is used as herbal medicine for tuberculosis in Namibia and Tanzania [16,72,74] while bark, leaf, and root decoction are used as ethnoveterinary medicine for blackleg, diarrhea, dysentery, intestinal parasites, and Texas fever in Ethiopia and Nigeria [18,19,20,21]
Antiulcerogenic activities Haule et al [79] evaluated the ability of ethanol extract of L. schimperi mixed with R. recinosa and stem bark of O. insignis, G. senegalensis, and E. abyssinica to protect Sprague Dawley rats from gastric ulceration at doses of 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, 400 mg/kg, and 800 mg/kg body weight

Summary

Introduction

A bark and root decoction of L. schimperi is used as herbal medicine for abdominal pains in Kenya and Mozambique [66] while leaf decoction is used against blood diarrhea in Kenya and Tanzania [12,13,66] (Table 1). The seed, leaf, root, and bark decoction of L. schimperi is used against cough in Rwanda and Tanzania [9,70] while root and stem bark decoction is used against diarrhea and dysentery in Burundi, Kenya, and Malawi [66,67,68,69,71].

Results

Conclusion