Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical
Medicine
Volume 9, Issue 4, April 2016, Pages
402–409
Authors : Ariful Alam, Sahena Ferdosh,
Kashif Ghafoor, Abdul Hakim, Abdul
Shukor Juraimi, Alfi Khatib, Zaidul I. Sarker.
Clinacanthus nutans Lindau is known as snake
grass, sambung nyawa, etc, belonging to
the Acanthaceae family. This plant has diverse and potential medicinal uses in
traditional herbal medicine for treating skin rashes, insects and snake bites,
lesions caused by herpes simplex virus, diabetes, and gout in Malaysia,
Indonesia, Thailand and China.
Phytochemical
investigations documented the varied contents of bioactive compounds from this
plant namely flavonoids, glycosides, glycoglycerolipids, cerebrosides and
monoacylmonogalatosylglycerol.
The
pharmacological experiment proved that various types of extracts and pure
compounds from this species exhibited a broad range of biological properties
such as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant, and anti-diabetic
activities. The findings of toxicity study showed that extracts from this plant
did not show any toxicity thus it can be used as strong therapeutic agents for
specific diseased conditions.
However,
further experiments on chemical components and their mode of action showing
biological activities are required to elucidate the complete phytochemical
profile and assess to confirm their suitability for future drugs. This review
summarizes the medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of this plant in
order to explore its therapeutic potential and gaps necessitating for
prospected research work.
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C. nutans (Burm. f.) Landau. (a) whole plant; (b) leaves; (c) leaves with stem.
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