ReviewTraditional uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of Ficus hispida L.f.: A review
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Traditional herbal medicines play a fundamental role in the prevention and treatment of various ailments since ancient time, which are rich sources for new drug discovery (Shendge et al., 2018). The prescribed drugs derived from higher plants have an upsurge with the value of 25% from the last few decades (Khaliq et al., 2017). Traditional medicines are believed to be safer than modern drugs if applied with a reasonable way (Geethangili et al., 2018).
Ficus hispida L.f. (F. hispida; Moraceae), known as peyatti (Tamil), gobla (Hindi), and dumoor (Bengali), is an essential herbal medicine cultivated mainly in the tropical and subtropical regions of India, China, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Myanmar (Ali et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2018). Different parts of F. hispida, such as root, stem, bark, leaves, fruits, and latex, have been used in traditional medicine (Pratumvinit et al., 2009). Previous phytochemical studies on F. hispida have revealed the presence of terpenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols, sterols, and glycosides (Sivaraman et al., 2009). In addition, F. hispida has been reported to show a variety of biological properties such as wound healing, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, sedative, antidiarrheal, antiulcer, antimicrobial, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, antineoplastic, and antidiabetic activities. However, only a few well-designed in vivo research on F. hispida has investigated the active components that contribute to pharmacological activities, and the toxicity of F. hispida has not been demonstrated clearly in these studies. Furthermore, quantitative evaluation of this plant has been poorly studied thus far. In this review, we summarize the botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity of F. hispida and clarify existing research gaps in search of new therapeutic uses.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
The available information on F. hispida was collected from electronic databases including PubMed, Baidu Scholar, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Science Direct, and a library search was performed from books, Ph.D. and M.Sc. dissertations, and unpublished materials. The keywords determined in this review were Ficus hispida L.f., traditional uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacology. Scientific name and synonyms were validated through the Plant List (www.theplantlist.org).
Botany
F. hispida (Fig. 1), a coarsely hairy shrub or small tree of approximately 10 m height, grows in secondary forests, open land, valleys, and rivers at an altitude of between 120 and 1600 m. The bark is generally brownish, and leaves are simple, opposite, and densely hispid. Four ovate-lanceolate stipules decussate on leafless fruiting branchlets. Figs are axillary on normal leafy shoots, leafless branchlets, and branchlets from main branches, solitary or paired, and they are yellow or red when
Traditional uses
F. hispida has been used widely in many traditional systems such as the Indian Ayurvedic system of medicines, Unani medicines, and Thai/Lanna medicinal plant recipes as well as in Chinese medicines including Dai nationality and Jinuo nationality (Salvi et al., 2013; Xu et al., 2010).
In the Indian traditional medicinal system, all parts of F. hispida have been reported to be bitter, coolant, acrid, and astringent and used for the treatment of ulcers, anemia, piles, jaundice, hemorrhage,
Phytochemistry
F. hispida contains a wide variety of phytochemicals including sesquiterpenoids and triterpenoids (1–16); flavonoids (17–36); coumarins, phenylpropionic acids, and benzoic acid derivatives (37–48); alkaloids (49–62); steroids (63–69); other glycosides (70–72); and alkanes (73–76) (Table 1). Based on phytochemical investigations currently available, the compounds have been isolated from different parts of F. hispida. Terpenoids, flavonoids, and alkaloids are the most important and abundant
Pharmacological activities
F. hispida has been studied for its pharmacological activities using in vitro and in vivo models (Table 2). The following sections discuss the biological activities in detail and emphasize the research gaps.
Pharmacokinetic studies
The study of pharmacokinetic features is an approach to understand the in vivo behavior and action mechanism of F. hispida (Shirai et al., 2001). Yang et al. (2016a,b) developed an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method to investigate the pharmacokinetics of quercetin (30). The maximum plasma concentration (Cmax), elimination half-life (T1/2), oral clearance, and time to reach peak concentration (Tmax) of quercetin were 842.1 ± 508.4 mg/L, 0.8 h,
Toxicity
According to available studies, the administration of F. hispida is avirulent or hypotoxic, and the clinical dosage is 25–50 g with the extensive form of decoction (National Chinese Herbal Medicine). The acute oral toxicity study of methanolic extract using the method provided in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guideline No. 423 revealed that the extract exerted no toxicity and mortality after 3 days even at 1 g/kg (Swathi et al., 2011). Howlader et al. (2017) also
Conclusions and future perspectives
This review provides detailed information of the botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity studies of F. hispida. Extensive literature survey has demonstrated that various parts of F. hispida are used in the ethnopharmacology of different Asian countries, especially in India and China. Pharmacological studies support the therapeutic potential of F. hispida in traditional medicine. Although great progress has been made in the research on F. hispida,
Authors' contributions
Jia-xin Cheng collected the information and drafted the manuscript; Bo-dou Zhang and Wan-fang Zhu helped to modify the format of the manuscript; Chao-feng Zhang and Wen-yuan Liu were involved in the preparation of tables; Yi-min Qin provided the pictures of the plant; Masahiko Abe and Toshihiro Akihisa edited the pictures; Feng Feng and Jie Zhang analyzed the manuscript. All authors approved the final submitted version of the manuscript.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors have declared no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Youth Science Fund Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81703383), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20170742), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2632019ZD16), and the “Double First-Class” University project (Grant No. CPU2018GY34).
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