Plants have been vital to human survival for aeons, especially for their unique medicinal properties. Trees of the Eucalyptus genus are well known for their medicinal properties; however, little is known of the ethnopharmacology and bioactivities of their close relatives in the Corymbia genus. Given the current lack of widespread knowledge of the Corymbia genus, this review aims to provide the first summary of the ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and bioactivities of this genus. The Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar databases were searched to identify research articles on the biological activities, phytochemistry and ethnomedical uses of Corymbia species. Of the 115 Corymbia species known, 14 species were found to have ethnomedical uses for the leaves, kino and/or bark. Analysis of the references obtained for these 14 Corymbia spp. revealed that the essential oils, crude extracts and compounds isolated from these species possess an array of biological activities including anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-protozoal, anti-viral, larvicidal, insecticidal, acaricidal, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer and anti-diabetic activities, highlighting the potential for this under-studied genus to provide lead compounds and treatments for a host of medical conditions.
Keywords: Corymbia; Myrtaceae; biological activity; drug discovery; essential oils; ethnopharmacology; natural products; phytochemistry.