Phytochemistry and pharmacology of genus Ephedra.
The genus Ephedra of the Ephedraceae family contains more than 60 species of nonflowering seed plants distributed throughout Asia, America, Europe, and North Africa. These Ephedra species have medicinal, ecological, and economic value. This review aims to summarize the chemical constituents and pharmacological activities of the Ephedra species to unveil opportunities for future research. Comprehensive information on the Ephedra species was collected by electronic search (e.g., GoogleScholar, Pubmed, SciFinder, and Web of Science) and phytochemical books. The chemical compounds isolated from the Ephedra species include alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, polysaccharides, and others. The in vitro and in vivo pharmacological studies on the crude extracts, fractions and few isolated compounds of Ephedra species showed anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antibacterial, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, anti-obesity, antiviral, and diuretic activities. After chemical and pharmacological profiling, current research is focused on the antibacterial and antifungal effects of the phenolic acid compounds, the immunosuppressive activity of the polysaccharides, and the antitumor activity of flavonoids.
['Zhang|Ben-Mei|BM|', 'Wang|Zhi-Bin|ZB|', 'Xin|Ping|P|', 'Wang|Qiu-Hong|QH|', 'Bu|He|H|', 'Kuang|Hai-Xue|HX|']
D000818:Animals D000890:Anti-Infective Agents D000975:Antioxidants D000998:Antiviral Agents D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal D029789:Ephedra D006801:Humans
Phytochemistry Pharmacology Ephedra