Abstract

PHYTOCHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF FAGONIA SPECIES: A REVIEW

Veena S. Kasture, Seema A. Gosavi, Jyoti B. Kolpe*, Sharaddha G. Deshapande

ABSTRACT

Fagonia species is a tropical herb belonging to family Zygophyllaceae, found in the entire Indian subcontinent. Fagonia arabica is popular in India and commonly known as ‘Dhamasa’ in Marathi language. Dhamasa is one of the ingredients of ayurvedic medicine, used as antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antioxidant & thrombolytic. As Dhamasa is major ingredient of many ayurvedic medicines, its identification is more important for evaluation of antihypertensive activity for which it is mostly used in ayurvedic medicines. The identification of drug involves the morphology and microscopical parameters. The evaluation parameters for plant based drugs as per official guidelines are, physical, chemical and biological evaluation. The active chemical constituents of Fagonia species are carbohydrates, flavonoid, glycosides, steroids, saponins, alkaloids, triterpenoidal glycosides, amino acids, Chlorides, Sulphates, Anthraquinones, Irodoids, Cyanogenic glycosides and Coumarin. The triterpenoidal glycosides and Flavonoids were isolated & chemical structures established from aerial parts of F. arabica and indica respectively. The reported pharmacological activity of Fagonia species are anticancer, antimicrobial, antiviral, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic as a coolant, used for skin diseases, and urinary tract infections, as antioxidant and thrombolytic. This review gives a focus mainly on the biological activities of the Fagonia Species and some of their isolated compounds, their pharmacological actions, clinical studies and medicinal applications of Fagonia along with their safety evaluation.

Keywords: Standardization, Fagonia species, Antioxidant, Thrombolytic, synergistic , Antiinflammatory activity