Secondary metabolites and biological activity of Pentas species: A minireview

Heba-Tollah M Sweelam; Howaida I Abd-Alla; Ahmed B Abdelwahab; Mahmoud M Gabr; Gilbert Kirsch

doi:10.1016/j.jare.2017.12.003

Secondary metabolites and biological activity of Pentas species: A minireview

J Adv Res. 2017 Dec 27:10:21-30. doi: 10.1016/j.jare.2017.12.003. eCollection 2018 Mar.

Authors

Heba-Tollah M Sweelam¹, Howaida I Abd-Alla¹, Ahmed B Abdelwahab^{1

2}, Mahmoud M Gabr³, Gilbert Kirsch²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Naturawl Compounds Chemistry, National Research Centre, El-Tahrir Street, Dokki, 12622 Giza, Egypt.
² Université de Lorraine, Laboratoire de Structure et Réactivité des Systèmes Moléculaires Complexes SRSMC (UMR 7565), Institut de Chimie, Physique et Matériaux (ICPM), 1 Boulevard Arago, 57070 METZ, France.
³ Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, El-Gammaa, 12613 Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

The genus Pentas belongs to the Rubiaceae family, which contains approximately 40 species. Several Pentas species were reported to be used as a folk treatment by African indigenous people in treating some diseases such as malaria, tapeworms, dysentery, gonorrhea, syphilis and snake poisoning. This article covers the period from 1962 to 2017 and presents an overview of the biological activity of different Pentas species and describes their phytochemical traits. As a conclusion, the main secondary metabolites from Pentas species are quinones, highly oxygenated chromene-based structures, and iridoids. Pentas species are widely used in folk medicine but they have to be more investigated for their medicinal properties.

Keywords: Anthraquinone; Antiplasmodial; Healing; Iridoid; Lanceolata; Pentas; Rubiaceae.

Publication types

Review