Traditional uses, phytochemistry, quality control and biological activities of genus Grewia

Abstract

BackgroundThe genus Grewia (Tiliaceae) comprises about 321 species which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. They have an excellent medicinal and emergent commercial importance and are traditionally used for the treatment of diabetes, typhoid, hepatitis, diarrhoea, dyspepsia, smallpox, syphilitic ulcers, eczema, malaria, etc. The fruits of Grewia species are used as a traditional medicinal diet as a nutraceutical in healthy drinks and food additives. Vitally, in the last decade, the genus Grewia has gained more attention due to its diversified traditional medicinal diets along with pharmacological activities. This review aims to provide a complete compilation of comprehensive, systematic, and accurate information on traditional uses, nutritional values, health benefits, phytochemistry, quality control, and pharmacological properties of the genus Grewia. MethodAll the relevant and systematic literature data on the genus Grewia was gathered using multiple electronic databases, including Google Scholar, SciFinder, Web of Science, PubChem, PubMed, ChemSpider, Taylor & Francis, ScienceDirect, ACS Journals, Wiley, Springer, Thieme, The Plant List Database and Scopus. Some other relevant books, book chapters, and Wikipedia are also studied as ‘grey literature. ResultsThe literature survey reveals that the fruits of Grewia asiatica and Grewia tenax are mainly used for traditional medicinal purposes and are a rich source of nutritional values and bioactive metabolites. About twenty-seven species in the genus Grewia have been reported for their pharmacological properties and in which only twelve species have been explored phytochemically. More than 227 chemical compounds, including alkaloids, flavonoids, isoflavonoids, phenols, and volatile classes of compounds have been identified and characterized in twelve species. Flavonoids appeared as the relatively most abundant class of compounds in fruits and could be used for quality control by HPTLC, HPLC, HPLC-MS, and GC-MS. The HPLC-MS methods are comparatively more sensitive than HPTLC and HPLC methods for quality control of raw and finished products based on characteristic compounds. Significant pharmacological activities such as analgesic, anticancer, antidiabetic, antiemetic, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial, antimicrobial, antinociceptive, antioxidant, antiplatelet, antipyretic, hepatoprotective, nephroprotective, neuroprotective, radioprotective, and uterotonic have been reported in methanolic and ethanolic extracts especially leaf extract from twenty- seven species. ConclusionConclusive evidence showed that the pharmacological activities of extracts and flavonoids and quality control are supporting and providing confidence in the traditional to modern uses of different products of fruits of Grewia species to manage many routine health problems. Based on the existing literature, except G. asiatica fruit remains poorly explored, essentially with limited scientific evidence available to support its nutritional and medicinal uses as well as economic benefits. However, this compilation may be short of clear research goals for further study of the Grewia species and has a good perspective to develop a new active principle as well as a traditional functional food.