REVIEW ARTICLE RECORDS OF PHARMACEUTICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Effects of Plants in Genus Sonchus (Asteraceae) Heba Fouad, Eman S. Habib, Safwat A.Ahmed* Pharmacognosy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt Abstract Received on: 05. 11. 2019 Medicinal plants have been used since ancient times for treatment of various Revised on: 26. 12. 2019 diseases. Many of the drugs available on the market today originated either directly or indirectly from bioactive compounds isolated from plants. Family Accepted on: 11. 01. 2020 Asteraceae is one of the largest families of flowering plants, comprising 1600 genera and almost 30000 species worldwide (Bisht et al., 2010). The genus Sonchus is a genus of flowering plants in the dandelion tribe of the Asteraceae Correspondence Author: Family. It consists mostly of annual herbs, but a few are perennial or woody Tel: + 01092638387 herbs. Annual herbs, known as sow thistles, were used as food stock for animals, particularly for rabbits. They are also edible to humans as a leafy vegetable. In E-mail address: Chinese folk medicine, sow thistles have been used for the treatment of fever, [email protected] inflammation, for detoxication and improvement of blood circulation. Recent advances in the ethnomedicinal, phytochemical, and pharmacological studies of this genus are reviewed in this paper (Muhammed et .,al 2012 ). Results showed that secondary metabolites isolated and identified from genus Sonchus were mainly terpenes, sterols, flavonoids, and coumarins. In vivo and in vitro pharmacological studies have shown that plants belonging to this genus exhibit various biological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antidepressant, anxiolytic, and anti-tumor activities (Jain et al., 2014). Further attention should be given to the study of species belonging to genus Sonchus especially regarding toxicological effects. Further research on Sonchus plants should be conducted using bioactivity-guided isolation strategies to isolate and identify the bioactive metabolites in this genus. Keywords: Sonchus, secondary metabolites, Asteraceae. 1. Introduction Since ancient times, people have turned to from renewable sources, and in most cases, their natural sources, mainly plants, for production of low cost compared to synthetic compounds. foods, clothing, fragrances, flavors and medicines Phytochemical investigation of plants has led to the (Gurib-Fakim, 2006). In recent years, a renewed discovery of novel secondary metabolites, which interest in obtaining biologically active compounds were used as leads for therapeutic agents from natural sources has been observed. Reasons (Savithramma et al., 2011). Family Asteraceae, for this worldwide attention towards formulations previously known as Compositae, is also known as based on natural products include their low toxicity, the daisy family, sunflower family or thistle family. their complete biodegradability, their availability It is one of the largest families of flowering plants, Rec. Pharm. Biomed. Sci. 4 (1), 40- 50, 2020 including almost 30000 species and 1600 - 1700 considered noxious weeds, as they grow quickly genera worldwide, and inhabits almost every and spread rapidly in a wide range of conditions. environment. The name Asteraceae comes from the term Aster meaning star and refers to the Sow thistles have been used as food for livestock, characteristic flower heads composed of many small hence sometimes known by the common name flowers, called florets, surrounded by bracts. "hare thistle" or "hare lettuce". They are also edible Asteraceae plants are most common in the moderate to humans as leafy vegetables, commonly regions and hot mountains. (Bisht et al., 2010). consumed in Mediterranean countries. It is very important in the diets of urban people and provides The genus Sonchus is a genus of the Asteraceae a relatively inexpensive vegetable to the society Family that belongs to the dandelion tribe. It (Vilala, 2009). In China, sow thistles have been consists mostly of annual herbs, but a few are used in folk medicine for the treatment of fever, perennial or woody herbs, such as subgenus inflammation, for detoxication and improvement of Dendrosonchus which grows in the Canary Islands. blood circulation (Muhammad et al., 2012). Annual herbs in the genus are known as sow Phytochemical investigation of plants belonging to thistles, because they were fed to lactating sows and genus Sonchus has showed that they contain believed to increase milk production. They are several classes of secondary metabolites, including characterized by soft, irregularly lobed leaves that terpenes, sterols, flavonoids, and coumarins. clasp the stem and sometimes form a basal rosette. Pharmacological studies conducted on the plant The stem can range from 30 cm to 2 m (1 to 6 feet) extracts and isolated compounds have shown that in height and contains a milky latex. Flower heads the plant has various medicinal uses including are yellow, half to one inch in diameter; the florets antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, are all of ray type. Sow thistles are common antibacterial, antidepressant, emollient, blood roadside plants that are native to Eurasia and purifying and liver tonic activities (Jain et al., tropical Africa, but they are found almost 2014). worldwide in temperate regions. Sow thistles are Fig. (1): Sonchus oleraceus herb. Fouad et. al 42 2. Chemical constituents reported from some species of genus Sonchus: 2.1 Flavonoids: R1 R2 R7O O R3 R4 R5 R O 6 Species Name R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Reference S.oleraceus Luteolin OH OH H H H OH OH (Bondarenko et al.,1973) S.oleraceus Luteolin-7-O- OH OH H H H OH O-Gluc. (Bondarenko et glucoside al.,1973) S.arvensis Isocinaroside OH OH H H H H O-Gluc. (Bondarenko et al.,1974) O- Rutinosi S. arvensis Linarin H OCH3 H H H H de (Bondarenko et al.,1975) S.arvensis Isorhamnetin OH OCH3 H H OH OH OH (Bondarenko et al.,1976) S.arvensis Quercetin OH OH H H OH OH OH (Bondarenko et al.,1976) S.arvensis Soncoside OH OH H OH H OH O-Gluc (Bondarenko et al.,1978) S.arvensis Apigenin H OH H H H OH OH (Qu Guirong et al.,1993) S.oleraceus Apigenin-7- H OH H H H OH O-Glu (Giner et al.,1993) S.asper glucoside S.maritimus Rec. Pharm. Biomed. Sci. 4 (1), 40- 50, 2020 2.2. Terpenoids: Plant species Compound name Compound structure Reference OH 15-hydroxy4-β ,15- CH2 dihydroreynosin H CH2OH O O O O H O H S.macrocarpus sonchucarpolide CH2 (Mahmoud et H al.,1984) CH3 OH OH 15-hydroxy-4β,15,11β,13- tetrahydroreynosin CH3 H O CH2OH O O O O CH2 Sonchuside E HO CH O 3 O OH OH OH O HO O CH3 (Shimizu et S. asper HO al.,1989) Sonchuside H O CH3 O OH OH OH O O O CH3 Sonchuside G HO O CH3 O OH OH OH Fouad et. al 44 O HO O CH 2 Sonchuside F HO O CH3 O OH OH OH HO O OH OH O OH O O Sonchuside I CH3 CH3 OH (1β,6α)-1,6-dihydroxy-14-O- [(4hydroxyphenyl)acetyl]eudesma- 3,11(13)-dien-12-oic acid γ- lactone S. uliginosus (Zhang et al .,2006) OH (1β,6α)-1,6,14- trihydroxyeudesma-3,11(13)-dien- 12-oic acid γ- lactone H OH O O CH 3 OH O loliolide O CH3 CH2 H S. oleraceus lupeol (Saad.E.,2009) H H HO H OH O O 1β-(p-hydroxyphenylacetyl)-15- Oβ-D-glucopyranosyl-5α,6Βh- H eudesma-3-en-12,6α-olide OH H O S. arvensise O (Xia et al.,2010) O O OH OH Rec. Pharm. Biomed. Sci. 4 (1), 40- 50, 2020 OSO3H H 1β-sulfate-5α,6βH-eudesma-3-en- H 12,6α-olide H O O 2.3. Organic acids: Plant species Compound name Compound structure References S.maritimus O S.asper OH S.glaucescens Caffeic acid OH (Giner et al ., S.oleraceus 1993) OH OH CO2H O S. maritimus OH S.asper O OH S.glaucescens OH S.oleraceus Chlorogenic acid OH (Giner et al ., S.tenerrimus 1993) HCO2H O HO OH O S. oleraceus Caftaric acid CO2H (Ou et al .,2012) OH S.oleraceus Chicoric acid HO O OH O HO O (Ou et al ., 2012) O OH O HO O OH Fouad et. al 46 COOH H S.eruca Erucaoic OH (Muhammad acid H et al.,2012) OH H 2.4. Fatty acids: Plant species Compound name Compound structure References Myristic acid S.arvensise (Shukla et al.,2014) Palmitic acid Linoleic acid 2.5 Miscellaneous compounds: 2.5.1 Coumarins: Cichoriin has been detected in Sonchus asper, Sonchus glaucescens and Sonchus tenerrimus. Aesculetin has been detected in Sonchus asper and Sonchus glaucescens, (Giner et al., 1993). OH OH CH2OH HO O 0 OH O O HO O O OH Cichoriin Aesculetin 2.5.2 Esters Rec. Pharm. Biomed. Sci. 4 (1), 40- 50, 2020 Quinic acid ester was identified from Sonchus arvensis (Xu et al., 2008) OR CH2OOC OR OH OR R= 3, 4, 5-tri-(p-hydroxyphenylacetyl) quinic acid methyl ester Hexadecanoic methyl ester was identified from Sonchus wightianus (Joshi et al., 2011). O CH3 CH3 O 2.5.3. Ionone glycosides These were isolated from Sonchus erzincanicus Corchoionoside C 6՝-O-sulfate (Ozgen et al, 2010). Corchoionoside (Ozgen et al, 2010). OH OH OH OH OH OH O O O O HO OSO3H OH OH O O 3. Biological activities of some species of due to the presence of polyphenolic constituent genus Sonchus: (Khan et al., 2012). Using the CAA assay, it was shown that foliar extracts of Sonchus oleraceus 3.1 Antioxidant activity: were effectively absorbed into HepG2 cells, and exerted antioxidant activity at levels comparable to In a study by Khan et al., Sonchus asper extracts those of extracts from blueberry.