Sys Rev Pharm 2020; 11(5): 472 502 A multifaceted review journal in the field of pharmacy E-ISSN 0976-2779 P-ISSN 0975-8453 The Genus Asarum L.: A Phytochemical and Ethnopharmacological Review Antsyshkina A.M.1, Ars Yu.V., Bokov D.O.1,2*, Pozdnyakova N.A.1, Prostodusheva T.V.1, Zaichikova S.G.1 1Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, 8 Trubetskaya St., bldg. 2, 119991, Russian Federation 2Federal Research Center of Nutrition, Biotechnology and Food Safety, 2/14, Ustyinsky pr., Moscow, 109240, Russian Federation *E-mail:
[email protected] Article History: Submitted: 01.03.2020 Revised: 15.04.2020 Accepted: 22.05.2020 ABSTRACT Objective: This review aims to present updated and generalized data flavonoids, alkaloids, and other compounds. Studies of extracts and on ethnobotany, phytochemistry, and biological activity of some individual isolated compounds demonstrate a wide range of biological species of the genus Asarum L. (Aristolochiaceae Juss.). These activity. They also provide evidence of nephrotoxicity and carcinogenic species have been used as medicinal plants of traditional medicine in effects of phenanthrene derivatives (aristolochic acid – AAI and AAII). Asia (China, Japan, and India), Europe, and North America for a long Conclusions: Further study of genus Asarum L. species is required to time. This study included the 6 most widely known representatives of determine the prospects for their use as sources of modern the genus Asarum L.: A. europaeum L. (European species); A. medicines, because of the bioavailability of raw materials, the wide heterotropoides F. Schmidt, A. himalaicum J.D. Hooker & Thomson ex range of biological activity and the therapeutic potential.