BIOACTIVE CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF BLEPHARIS AND LEPIDAGATHIS (ACANTHACEAE) – A REVIEW

The herbal drugs derived from plant sources are used in traditional pharmacopeia and also act as precursor in lab to synthesize medicines at large scale. Acanthaceae is a large family comprising of various medicinally valuable species. In traditional use, the leaves of this family are commonly recognized to alleviate the poisonous bites of reptiles and insects and whole plants for the treatment of external wounds and ulcers. The pharmacological effects evaluated from various species of this family are antibacterial, antifungal, antipyretic, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic, antioxidant, anti-platelet aggression and insecticidal activities. The phytochemicals reported from this family are mainly flavonoids, alkaloids, lignans, benzonoids, fatty acids, terpenoids, tannins and a few triterpenoid saponins. In the present study two genera namely Blepharis and Lepidagathis of the family Acanthaceae were selected with the focus on their traditional use, chemical constituents, and pharmacological activities. Various pharmacological experiments have verified their practice in traditional use and species of both the genera emerged as good source of herbal medicines. However, uncharacterized crude extract was employed in most of the studies with few exceptions. These species need to be explored for isolation of more compounds with their pre-clinical and clinical studies to establish as potential drugs. The review will help the researchers.