Online - 2455-3891 Vol 12, Issue 9, 2019 Print - 0974-2441 Review Article A REVIEW OF BOTANY, THERAPEUTIC VALUE, PHYTOCHEMISTRY, AND PHARMACOLOGY OF CUSSONIA PANICULATA ALFRED MAROYI* Department of Botany, Medicinal Plants and Economic Development Research Centre, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa. Email: [email protected] Received: 04 June 2019, Revised and Accepted: 01 July 2019 ABSTRACT Cussonia paniculata is a small tree widely used as herbal medicine throughout its distributional range in southern Africa. This study is aimed at providing a critical review of the botany, biological activities, phytochemistry, and medicinal uses of C. paniculata. Documented information on the botany, biological activities, medicinal uses, and phytochemistry of C. paniculata was collected from several online sources which included BMC, Scopus, SciFinder, Google Scholar, Science Direct, Elsevier, PubMed, and Web of Science. Additional information on the botany, biological activities, phytochemistry, and medicinal uses of C. paniculata was gathered from pre-electronic sources such as book chapters, books, journal articles, and scientific publications sourced from the University library. This study showed that the bark, fruits, leaves, roots, and stems of C. paniculata are used as emetic, immune booster, and herbal medicine for dysmenorrhea, intestinal parasites and worms, mental problems, boils, shingles and skin diseases, indigestion and stomach complaints, sores, and wounds. Phytochemical compounds identified from the leaves of C. paniculata include acetylated triterpene glycosides, unacetylated triterpene glycosides, flavonoid, steroidal saponin, and triterpenoid saponins. Pharmacological research revealed that C. paniculata extracts have analgesic, antibacterial, the phytochemical, pharmacological, and toxicological properties of C. paniculata crude extracts as well as compounds isolated from the species. anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antiplasmodial, antiprotozoan, Aβ42 protein reduction, and cytotoxicity activities. Future research should focus on evaluating Keywords: Araliaceae, Cussonia paniculata, Ethnopharmacology, Herbal medicine, Indigenous pharmacopeia. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4. 0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ajpcr.2019.v12i9.34434 INTRODUCTION “paniculata” refers to the paniculate or branched inflorescence which Eckl. and Zeyh. is a member of the or Cussonia paniculata Araliaceae terminatesin the plant the groupgrowth Umbrelliferae of the species’ [50,62,63].branches. TheThe English specific common name ginseng or ivy family. Ginseng is a common name for several herbaceous name of C. paniculata is “mountain cabbage tree,” mainly because the plants used in traditional medicines such as Asian ginseng ( Panax ginseng species is associated with dry stony hills and the thick, often blue-green C.A. Meyer) [1-6], American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius leaves resemble those of a cabbage (Brassica oleracea Japanese ginseng (Panax japonicus leaves of C. paniculata are gray-green or blue-green in color which is common name for L. species grown as ornamental plants L.) [4,7-14], and house and Hedera probably due to the thick waxy layers on the leaves. These L.) waxy [49]. layers The (T.Nees) C.A.Hedera Meyer) species [4,15-21]. are used Ivy is as a herbal medicines for respiratory, skin problems, and other health-related subspecies of C. paniculata are recognized subsp. paniculata and subsp. plants throughout theHedera world [22-24].species areSeveral also characterized by several sinuataare believed to protect the leaves from severe frost in winterpaniculata [49]. Two is phytochemical and biological activities which include antimicrobial, anti- characterized by entire leaflet margins, confined to the southern inflammatory,conditions [25-32]. antiarthritic, antioxidant, antispasmodic, antiallergic, and Karoo, Eastern(Reyneke Cape, and Kok)KwaZulu-Natal, De Winter Northern[64]. The subsp.Cape, and Western Cussonia Thunb. comprises antitumor activities [29,33-39]. The genus sinuata is characterized subshrubs recorded in grasslands, woodlands, and forests of sub-Saharan Cape provinces of South Africa at an altitude ranging from 300 m to about 22 species which are mainly trees or shrubs or occasionally by shallowly to deep lobed and waxy (sinuate) leaflet margins and widely2000 m distributed above the sea and level recorded [41,64]. in TheBotswana, subsp. Lesotho, Swaziland, the C. paniculata is widely used as a decorative and ornamental plant, as Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North theAfrica, species the Arabian is frost-resistant Peninsula and (Yemen), therefore and recommendedthe Comoro Islands for rockeries, [40-46]. C. paniculata is domesticated West provinces of South Africa at an altitude ranging from 900 m to bonsai, and other gardens [42,47-55]. ethnopharmacological literature do not separate C. paniculata into peeled and eaten raw as an emergency food, as a source of water or 1980 m above the sea level [41,64]. However, most ethnobotanical and in home gardens in South Africa [56], and the thick tuberous roots are specific subspecies but rather to C. paniculata sensu lato, and this is the approach that has been adopted in this study. Synonyms associated by Makunga et al with C. paniculata include C. paniculata Eckl. and Zeyh. var. paniculata C.snack panicula in Southta are Africa used andin the Swaziland production [57-59]. of essence In South and Africa,tinctures. research Local and C. paniculata Eckl. and Zeyh. var. sinuata communities in the. [60] Eastern showed Cape that province the flowers, in South leaves, Africa and described roots of C. paniculata as “rare” in the Eastern thorn bushveld [61], an observation C. paniculata is an evergreen small tree withReyneke a sturdy and trunk Kok. which [64]. is which has important implications for conservation and sustainable use of the species. It is against this background that this study was undertaken is reddish gray to gray, rough, corky, swollen at the base and roughly aimed at appraising the botany, medicinal uses, phytochemistry, and sparsely branched, rarely exceeding 5 m in height [41,63,65-68]. The stem biological activities of C. paniculata. as the species usually sheds old leaves while new flush of leaves are being3.5 cm produced. in diameter, The branchesthe branches have markeda mop-like with crown prominent of leathery, leaf green,scars TAXONOMY AND BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF C. PANICULATA frequently blue-green leaves, composed of several leaflets on short stalks The genus name Cussonia springing from the same point at the end of a stout common stalk. The French botany professor at the University of Montpellier who specialized leaves are bi-digitate, oblong in shape, apex and base tapering, margin is in honor of Pierre Cusson (1727–1783), a Maroyi Asian J Pharm Clin Res, Vol 12, Issue 9, 2019, 1-6 sparsely to distinctly toothed. The flowers are a branched panicle of spikes BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF C. PANICULATA EXTRACTS which are greenish yellow in color. The fruits are fleshy, almost globose Biological activities of in shape, pale purplish in color, and closely clustered along the spikes. C. C. paniculata has been recorded in Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, and paniculata extracts include analgesic [95], antibacterial [104], anticancer [105,106], anti-inflammatory [52,75,95], Swaziland [41,63,66-68] in bushveld, wooded grassland, usually in rocky antiplasmodial [52,75,104], antiprotozoan [104], Aβ42 protein reduction [76], and cytotoxicity [104] activities. MEDICINALplaces at an altitude USES OFranging C. PANICULATA from 300 m to 2000 m above the sea level [64]. Analgesic activities Adedapo et al The bark, fruits, leaves, roots, and stems of C. paniculata are used of the stem bark of C. paniculata using the formalin test by treating . [95] evaluated the analgesic activities of aqueous extract (Table 1). C. paniculata is mainly used as emetic, immune booster, and herbalas herbal medicine medicines for dysmenorrhea,against 32 human intestinal diseases parasites in southern and worms, Africa male Wistar rats with 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg, and 200 mg/kg of extract; mental problems, boils, shingles and skin diseases, indigestion and the10 mg/kg acetic of acid-induced indomethacin; writhing and 2 ml/kg model, of normalthe extract saline, showed and the a licking good stomach complaints, sores, and wounds (Fig. 1). In Lesotho, the analgesictime and frequencyeffect characterized of the injected by reduction paw were in recordedthe number for 30of writhesmin. In leaves of C. paniculata are mixed with those of Searsia divaricata when compared to the control. The extract caused dose-dependent (Eckl. and Zeyh.) Moffett and Scabiosa columbaria L. as herbal medicine decrease of licking time and licking frequency in rats injected with 2.5% for menstrual problems [69]. PHYTOCHEMISTRY OF C. PANICULATA Antibacterialformalin, signifying activities its analgesic effect [95]. Several researchers such as Dovgii et al et al De Villiers et al Adedapo et al et al and methanol leaf extracts of C. paniculata subsp. paniculata and . [104] evaluated antibacterial activities of aqueous triterpene glycosides, unacetylated triterpene. [93], Grishkovets glycosides, flavonoid,. [94], C. paniculata subsp. sinuata against Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia steroidal saponin,. [95], and and triterpenoid