Phytochemical and Biological Studies on Certain Centaurea Species Belonging to Family Asteraceae

Abstract

Phytochemical and Biological Studies on Certain Centaurea Species Belonging to Family Asteraceae Genus Centaurea (Asteraceae) comprises about 500 species, which are predominantly distributed around the Mediterranean area and in west Asia. In Egypt, there are seventeen wild species of genus Centaurea. Several Centaurea species are used as herbal remedies for their digestive, tonic, expectorant, antipyretic, antidiarrheal effects, and in the treatment of minor ocular inflammation in traditional medicineas diuretic and cholagogic agents as well as considering some species as antidiabetic plants. Literature review on genus Centaurea including reported phytochemicals and biological activities are presented. C. aegyptiaca, known locally as Murrar Masry, has no reported folkloric use. However, C. alexandrina, known locally as Murrar Askandari, is reported to be used in folk medicine in Egypt as a hypoglycemic agent. Though many valuable phytochemical and biological studies have been reported from different species of Centaurea, very few reports concerning phytochemical studies of Centaurea alexandrina and Centaurea aegyptiaca were traced. This necessitates an indepth study to investigate the possible biological activities of Centaurea alexandrina and Centaurea aegyptiaca as well as to isolate and identify the compound(s) that may be responsible of these activities in each species. The present study followed ‘‘The bioactivity guided fractionation’’, and is presented in three parts as follow: Part I Biological studies of Centaurea aegyptiaca L. and Centaurea alexandrina Delile family Asteraceae 1. Evaluation of the anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, antioxidant and hepatoprotective activities of Centaurea aegyptiaca and Centaurea alexandrina ethanol extracts