A review of the medicinal potentials of plants of the genus Vernonia (Asteraceae)
Graphical abstract
Section snippets
Introduction to the genus Vernonia
Vernonia (Asteraceae) is the largest genus in the tribe Vernoniae with close to 1000 species (Keeley and Jones, 1979). The genus Vernonia is named after William Vernon, an English botanist who collected and identified this genus in Maryland in the late 1600s before his death in 1711 (Quattrocchi, 1999). The genus is distributed both in the New and Old Worlds although it is to be found mostly in the tropical regions. Vernonia species grow in a wide range of habitats of broad ecological diversity
Review methodology
- a.
Literature search: Relevant literature was collected by searching the major scientific databases including SciFinder, Sciencedirect, Medline and Google Scholar. Table 2 presents the results of the keyword search from the above databases. We are also aware of the fact that these databases are updated routinely and the data presented in Table 2 is just indicative of the information that was available at the time this paper was being prepared.
- b.
Selection of relevant publications: Two major criteria
Results and discussion
Plants of the genus Vernonia are widely used in ethnomedicine, ethnoveterinary medicine and in zoopharmacognosy especially by chimpanzees and gorillas. A total of 109 species of Vernonia have been identified to be used in folk medicine or bioactive. One hundred and three of the species are used in ethnomedicine while twelve of the species are used in ethnoveterinary medicine. Only 2 of the species are used in zoopharmacognosy. Also, 2 of the species listed out of the 109 did not have any
Conclusion and recommendations
This review summarizes information on the ethnomedicinal uses and confirmed in vitro and in vivo bioactivity of plants of the genus Vernonia. The review confirms the importance of the genus as a source of nutrition and medicine for humans, domesticated as well as wild animals. Despite the great potential that this genus holds as a source of new drugs, much remains to be done to properly document the folk uses of plants of this genus as the basis of further studies aimed at the validation of
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