Abstract
A current research topic of great interest is the study of the therapeutic properties of plants and of their bioactive secondary metabolites. Plants have been used to treat all types of health problems from allergies to cancer, in addition to their use in the perfumery industry and as food. Hedychium species are among those plants used in folk medicine in several countries and several works have been reported to verify if and how effectively these plants exert the effects reported in folk medicine, studying their essential oils, extracts and pure secondary metabolites. Hedychium coronarium and Hedychium spicatum are the most studied species. Interesting compounds have been identified like coronarin D, which possesses antibacterial, antifungal and antitumor activities, as well as isocoronarin D, linalool and villosin that exhibit better cytotoxicity towards tumor cell lines than the reference compounds used, with villosin not affecting the non-tumor cell line. Linalool and α-pinene are the most active compounds found in Hedychium essential oils, while β-pinene is identified as the most widespread compound, being reported in 12 different Hedychium species. Since only some Hedychium species have been investigated, this review hopes to shed some light on the uncharted territory that is the Hedychium genus.
Highlights
Since the beginning of the history of mankind there was always a connection between plants and human health, as they were used as food and medicines [1]
The results indicate that both H. coronarium formulations tested, aqueous rhizome extract and AgNPs, were toxic against A. aegypti in a dose-dependent manner
The results demonstrate that the essential oil exerted larvicidal activity over the different larvae with the LC50 values of 82.02, 88.60 and 96.40 μg/mL for A. stephensi, A. aegypti and C. quinquefasciatus, respectively
Summary
Since the beginning of the history of mankind there was always a connection between plants and human health, as they were used as food and medicines [1]. Hedychium species are medium-size rhizomatous perennial monocotyledonous plants that can be recognized by their characteristic striking foliage and terminal spikes that produce diversified numerous short-lived flamboyant flowers with several hues and fragrances varying depending on the species [15] These features give them a high ornamental value, being cultivated worldwide mostly for this purpose and for its use in the perfumery industry, since, besides the aromatic flowers, Hedychium species rhizomes originate strongly scented oils [16,17]. The use of Hedychium species in folk medicine is common in several countries since they are harvested directly from nature or obtained at local markets [18] These plants are reported to possess analgesic, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anti-allergic, anthelmintic and antioxidant properties [19,20,21,22]. The research for this review was made combining the terms Hedychium, phytochemical and biological activities in the databases Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus and were considered only the published works involving Hedychium species whose binominal Latin name is an accepted name on the The Plant List database [7]
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