J Plant Biotechnol 2022; 49(1): 3-14
Published online March 31, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5010/JPB.2022.49.1.003
© The Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology
Correspondence to : e-mail: ymkang@kiom.re.kr
†Equally contributed to this manuscript and should be considered co-first authors.
This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Leonotis nepetifolia (L.) R. Br, commonly called dagga, klip dagga, or lion’s ear, has been used to effectively treat various diseases and other health problems for a long time because of its antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and analgesic activities. Several studies have attributed these biological activities to L. nepetifolia’s constituent secondary metabolites, such as alkaloids, phenolics, flavonoids, tannins, steroids, glycosides, coumarins, anthocyanins, and saponins. This review aims to examine the evidence-based ethnopharmacological uses of L. nepetifolia in the treatment of bronchial asthma, diarrhea, skin diseases, malaria, burns, cancer, diabetes mellitus, and rheumatism. However, although L. nepetifolia has great potential to treat these diseases, further isolation and identification of its therapeutic phytochemical constituents are required. In addition, the performance of its extracts and phytochemicals should be thoroughly tested in preclinical and clinical trials in order to ascertain their safety and efficacy, which will prove valuable in developing new medicines.
Keywords ethnopharmacological, Leonotis nepetifolia, klip dagga, lion’s ear, phytochemicals, secondary metabolites, biological activity
Medicinal plants are major components of indigenous medical systems worldwide. For several years, medicinal plants have been used to treat diseases (da Silva Almeida et al. 2018). As reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of people in the world use herbal medicines in the management of their primary healthcare needs (Bhardwaj et al. 2018; Majeed 2017). In addition to their use in traditional medicine, medicinal plants are sources of new drugs; indeed, more than 25% of prescribed drugs in developed countries are wild plant species derived (Chen et al. 2016). Furthermore, approximately 70%-80% of the people in the developing world rely on conventional plant-derived remedies (Rankoana 2016). Given the growing demand for herbal drugs, natural health products, and plant secondary metabolites, the use of medicinal plants is rapidly increasing globally (Chen et al. 2016).
However, the literature on evidence-based ethnopharmacological uses of
The literature was searched as in Komakech et al. (2017) after modifications to find information about
Genus
In traditional medicine,
Table 1 Diseases treated using
aNot specified.
Source: adapted from Kang et al. (2013).
Table 2 Some phytochemical compounds identified in
Phytochemical compounds | Plant part | Biological activities | References |
---|---|---|---|
Leonotinin | Leaves | Anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and antihypercholestrolemic activity | Parra-Delgado et al. (2004) |
Stigmasterol | Flower | Anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and antihypercholestrolemic activity | Parra-Delgado et al. (2004) |
Nepetaefuran and leonotinin | Aerial part | Anti-inflammatory and antitumor activity | Ueda et al. (2015) |
Methoxy-nepetaefolin hydroxy-dialactone nepetaefolinol, dehydrated nepetaefolinol, and nepetefolin | Aerial part | Antioxidant activity | Govindasamy et al. (2002), Tidke et al. (2021) |
Phenylethanoid glycosides, acteoside, martynoside, lavanduflioside, 10-o-(trans-3,4-dimethoxycinnamoyl) geniposidic acid, geniposidic acid, mussaenoside, and ixoside | Stem | Antioxidant activity | Takeda et al. (1999) |
Loganin and loganic acid | Stem | α-Glucosidase inhibition | Tidke et al. (2021) |
Cirsiliol | Leaves and root | Antileishmanial and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019), Tidke et al. (2021) |
Apigenin | Leaves, stem, and root | Antiviral, antileishmanial, and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019) |
Luteolin | Leaves and stem | Antileishmanial and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019) |
Malaria is among the top causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. Approximately 219 million cases of malaria and 435,000 associated deaths were registered in 2017 (Ghosh and Rahi 2019). Several ethnomedicinal studies have reported that the whole
Diarrhea is very common in countries of the developing world, and in Southeast Asia and Africa alone, it causes 8.5% and 7.7%, respectively, of all deaths (Dairo et al. 2017). In fact, diarrheal diseases rank second on the list of major causes of death among children under the age of five, worldwide (Fenta et al. 2020). To manage the disease,
Asthma is currently an umbrella diagnosis for a number of distinct diseases and varying phenotypes manifesting symptoms of shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, and chest tightness associated with variable airflow obstruction (Kuruvilla et al. 2019; Reddel et al. 2015). Technically, asthma is an inflammatory disorder of epithelial surfaces that typically involves allergen-driven T-helper 2 (Th2) lymphocyte polarization with coordinated production of interleukin (IL)-3, IL-13, IL-4, IL-9, IL-5, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which are encoded in a gene cluster on chromosome 5q31–34 (Holgate and Polosa 2006). Asthma is a major chronic disease worldwide, affecting more than 334 million people (Enilari and Sinha 2019) and accounting for approximately one in every 250 deaths (Tany and Saha 2017). The use of traditional medicines in the management of asthma is increasing markedly, and
Skin diseases including ringworm, leprosy, itching, wounds, dermatitis, allergy, swelling, eczema, psoriasis, and scabies, are caused by various microorganisms or harsh environments (Suresh et al. 2012); further, they account for approximately 34% of all occupational diseases (Abbasi et al. 2010). Infectious dermatological diseases are highly prevalent in tropical countries where the majority of the population lives in developing areas characterized by poor sanitation and unhygienic food habits (Sharma et al. 2014). Morbidity due to skin diseases causes emotional and psychological stress to patients and their families, although mortality is very low (Basra and Shahrukh 2009). Numerous medicinal plants have been traditionally used to treat skin diseases,
The extensive use of
Musculoskeletal disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, gout, and intervertebral disc disease, among others, are generally categorized as “rheumatism.” The diagnosis and treatment of these conditions make up approximately 10% of clinical practice (Pushpan et al. 2013). The use of
Cancer is one of the worst health problems globally (Subastri et al. 2018). Approximately 20 million people are diagnosed with cancer annually, and over 6 million mortalities are registered (Gurunagarajan and Pemaiah 2011). Natural products, including herbs, have been used to treat and prevent cancer (Oliveira et al. 2019). Studies have shown that decoctions of the whole plant or leaves of
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood-glucose concentrations and glucose excretion in the urine (Maobe 2014). The forms of DM are type 1 and type 2, where type 1 DM is a result of the autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin, consequently, people with type 1 DM require insulin for survival (Imperatore et al. 2021). Meanwhile, type 2 DM is mainly caused by a combination of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency (American Diabetes Association 2017). By 2013, 10% of the world population was recorded as suffering from diabetes (Maobe 2014). Some studies have reported that
This research was funded by Development of Sustainable Application for Standard Herbal Resources (KSN2013320), Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine through the Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea.
The authors declare no conflict of interest in the publication of this review paper.
J Plant Biotechnol 2022; 49(1): 3-14
Published online March 31, 2022 https://doi.org/10.5010/JPB.2022.49.1.003
Copyright © The Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology.
Roggers Gang·Youngmin Kang
University of Science & Technology (UST), Korean Convergence Medicine, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine (KIOM), Yuseongdae-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
National Semi-Arid Resources Research Institute (NaSARRI), P.O Box 56, Soroti, Uganda
Correspondence to:e-mail: ymkang@kiom.re.kr
†Equally contributed to this manuscript and should be considered co-first authors.
This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Leonotis nepetifolia (L.) R. Br, commonly called dagga, klip dagga, or lion’s ear, has been used to effectively treat various diseases and other health problems for a long time because of its antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and analgesic activities. Several studies have attributed these biological activities to L. nepetifolia’s constituent secondary metabolites, such as alkaloids, phenolics, flavonoids, tannins, steroids, glycosides, coumarins, anthocyanins, and saponins. This review aims to examine the evidence-based ethnopharmacological uses of L. nepetifolia in the treatment of bronchial asthma, diarrhea, skin diseases, malaria, burns, cancer, diabetes mellitus, and rheumatism. However, although L. nepetifolia has great potential to treat these diseases, further isolation and identification of its therapeutic phytochemical constituents are required. In addition, the performance of its extracts and phytochemicals should be thoroughly tested in preclinical and clinical trials in order to ascertain their safety and efficacy, which will prove valuable in developing new medicines.
Keywords: ethnopharmacological, Leonotis nepetifolia, klip dagga, lion’s ear, phytochemicals, secondary metabolites, biological activity
Medicinal plants are major components of indigenous medical systems worldwide. For several years, medicinal plants have been used to treat diseases (da Silva Almeida et al. 2018). As reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of people in the world use herbal medicines in the management of their primary healthcare needs (Bhardwaj et al. 2018; Majeed 2017). In addition to their use in traditional medicine, medicinal plants are sources of new drugs; indeed, more than 25% of prescribed drugs in developed countries are wild plant species derived (Chen et al. 2016). Furthermore, approximately 70%-80% of the people in the developing world rely on conventional plant-derived remedies (Rankoana 2016). Given the growing demand for herbal drugs, natural health products, and plant secondary metabolites, the use of medicinal plants is rapidly increasing globally (Chen et al. 2016).
However, the literature on evidence-based ethnopharmacological uses of
The literature was searched as in Komakech et al. (2017) after modifications to find information about
Genus
In traditional medicine,
Table 1 . Diseases treated using
aNot specified..
Source: adapted from Kang et al. (2013)..
Table 2 . Some phytochemical compounds identified in
Phytochemical compounds | Plant part | Biological activities | References |
---|---|---|---|
Leonotinin | Leaves | Anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and antihypercholestrolemic activity | Parra-Delgado et al. (2004) |
Stigmasterol | Flower | Anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and antihypercholestrolemic activity | Parra-Delgado et al. (2004) |
Nepetaefuran and leonotinin | Aerial part | Anti-inflammatory and antitumor activity | Ueda et al. (2015) |
Methoxy-nepetaefolin hydroxy-dialactone nepetaefolinol, dehydrated nepetaefolinol, and nepetefolin | Aerial part | Antioxidant activity | Govindasamy et al. (2002), Tidke et al. (2021) |
Phenylethanoid glycosides, acteoside, martynoside, lavanduflioside, 10-o-(trans-3,4-dimethoxycinnamoyl) geniposidic acid, geniposidic acid, mussaenoside, and ixoside | Stem | Antioxidant activity | Takeda et al. (1999) |
Loganin and loganic acid | Stem | α-Glucosidase inhibition | Tidke et al. (2021) |
Cirsiliol | Leaves and root | Antileishmanial and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019), Tidke et al. (2021) |
Apigenin | Leaves, stem, and root | Antiviral, antileishmanial, and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019) |
Luteolin | Leaves and stem | Antileishmanial and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019) |
Malaria is among the top causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. Approximately 219 million cases of malaria and 435,000 associated deaths were registered in 2017 (Ghosh and Rahi 2019). Several ethnomedicinal studies have reported that the whole
Diarrhea is very common in countries of the developing world, and in Southeast Asia and Africa alone, it causes 8.5% and 7.7%, respectively, of all deaths (Dairo et al. 2017). In fact, diarrheal diseases rank second on the list of major causes of death among children under the age of five, worldwide (Fenta et al. 2020). To manage the disease,
Asthma is currently an umbrella diagnosis for a number of distinct diseases and varying phenotypes manifesting symptoms of shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, and chest tightness associated with variable airflow obstruction (Kuruvilla et al. 2019; Reddel et al. 2015). Technically, asthma is an inflammatory disorder of epithelial surfaces that typically involves allergen-driven T-helper 2 (Th2) lymphocyte polarization with coordinated production of interleukin (IL)-3, IL-13, IL-4, IL-9, IL-5, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which are encoded in a gene cluster on chromosome 5q31–34 (Holgate and Polosa 2006). Asthma is a major chronic disease worldwide, affecting more than 334 million people (Enilari and Sinha 2019) and accounting for approximately one in every 250 deaths (Tany and Saha 2017). The use of traditional medicines in the management of asthma is increasing markedly, and
Skin diseases including ringworm, leprosy, itching, wounds, dermatitis, allergy, swelling, eczema, psoriasis, and scabies, are caused by various microorganisms or harsh environments (Suresh et al. 2012); further, they account for approximately 34% of all occupational diseases (Abbasi et al. 2010). Infectious dermatological diseases are highly prevalent in tropical countries where the majority of the population lives in developing areas characterized by poor sanitation and unhygienic food habits (Sharma et al. 2014). Morbidity due to skin diseases causes emotional and psychological stress to patients and their families, although mortality is very low (Basra and Shahrukh 2009). Numerous medicinal plants have been traditionally used to treat skin diseases,
The extensive use of
Musculoskeletal disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, gout, and intervertebral disc disease, among others, are generally categorized as “rheumatism.” The diagnosis and treatment of these conditions make up approximately 10% of clinical practice (Pushpan et al. 2013). The use of
Cancer is one of the worst health problems globally (Subastri et al. 2018). Approximately 20 million people are diagnosed with cancer annually, and over 6 million mortalities are registered (Gurunagarajan and Pemaiah 2011). Natural products, including herbs, have been used to treat and prevent cancer (Oliveira et al. 2019). Studies have shown that decoctions of the whole plant or leaves of
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood-glucose concentrations and glucose excretion in the urine (Maobe 2014). The forms of DM are type 1 and type 2, where type 1 DM is a result of the autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin, consequently, people with type 1 DM require insulin for survival (Imperatore et al. 2021). Meanwhile, type 2 DM is mainly caused by a combination of insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency (American Diabetes Association 2017). By 2013, 10% of the world population was recorded as suffering from diabetes (Maobe 2014). Some studies have reported that
This research was funded by Development of Sustainable Application for Standard Herbal Resources (KSN2013320), Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine through the Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea.
The authors declare no conflict of interest in the publication of this review paper.
Table 1 . Diseases treated using
aNot specified..
Source: adapted from Kang et al. (2013)..
Table 2 . Some phytochemical compounds identified in
Phytochemical compounds | Plant part | Biological activities | References |
---|---|---|---|
Leonotinin | Leaves | Anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and antihypercholestrolemic activity | Parra-Delgado et al. (2004) |
Stigmasterol | Flower | Anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and antihypercholestrolemic activity | Parra-Delgado et al. (2004) |
Nepetaefuran and leonotinin | Aerial part | Anti-inflammatory and antitumor activity | Ueda et al. (2015) |
Methoxy-nepetaefolin hydroxy-dialactone nepetaefolinol, dehydrated nepetaefolinol, and nepetefolin | Aerial part | Antioxidant activity | Govindasamy et al. (2002), Tidke et al. (2021) |
Phenylethanoid glycosides, acteoside, martynoside, lavanduflioside, 10-o-(trans-3,4-dimethoxycinnamoyl) geniposidic acid, geniposidic acid, mussaenoside, and ixoside | Stem | Antioxidant activity | Takeda et al. (1999) |
Loganin and loganic acid | Stem | α-Glucosidase inhibition | Tidke et al. (2021) |
Cirsiliol | Leaves and root | Antileishmanial and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019), Tidke et al. (2021) |
Apigenin | Leaves, stem, and root | Antiviral, antileishmanial, and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019) |
Luteolin | Leaves and stem | Antileishmanial and antimicrobial activity | de Oliveira et al. (2019) |
Endang Rahmat· Youngmin Kang
J Plant Biotechnol 2019; 46(3): 143-157
Journal of
Plant Biotechnology