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Table 1 Investigated plants, their traditional use, chemical constituents and bioactivities

From: Cytotoxicity of selected Cameroonian medicinal plants and Nauclea pobeguinii towards multi-factorial drug-resistant cancer cells

Species (family); Voucher number* and place of plant’s collection

Parts used traditionally (part used in this study and percentage yield)

Traditional uses

Bioactive or potentially bioactive components

Bioactivities

Canarium schweinfurthii Engl. (Burseraceae); 19652/HNC; Bangangté

Bark, seeds, fruits, leaves and roots (bark: 7.36 %)

Insecticide, dysentery, gonorrhea, coughs, chest pains, pulmonary affections, stomach complaints, food poisoning, purgative and emetic, roundworm infections and other intestinal parasites, emollient, stimulant, diuretic, skin-affections, eczema, leprosy, ulcers [40]; diabetes mellitus [41]; colic, stomach pains, pains after child birth, gale [42]; fever, constipation, malaria, sexually transmitted infection and rheumatism [43].

From oil: Limonene, phellandrenes [40]; bark: Triterpenes steroids, saponins, lipids and glycosides [41]; seeds: schweinfurthinol, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, coniferaldehyde, p-hydroxycinnamaldehyde, ligballinol, amantoflavone [44]; catechol, dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, tyrosol, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, dihydroxynezoic acid, vanilic acid, phloretic acid, pinoresinol, secoisolariciresinol [45]; tannins, cardiacglycosides, balsams, phenols and flavonoids (Uzama et al., 2012), canarene [46].

Chemoprevention of cancer and other oxidative damage-induced diseases: fruit mesocarp oil extract (Atawodi, 2010) and seed kernel oil extract [47]; Antimycobacterial activities: leaves [48]; antimicrobial activities of dichloromethane, ethylacetate and ethanol extracts against gastrointestinal pathogenic bacteria [49].

Dischistocalyx grandifolius C.B.Clarke (Acanthaceae) 27646/SRF Cam; Mbouda

Whole plant (whole plant: 4.53 %)

Infectious diseases [50]

Not reported

Not reported

Fagara macrophylla Engl. (Rutaceae) 6173/SRF Cam; Mbouda

Bark, leaves and seeds (bark: 8.43 %; leaves: 6.81 %)

Hypertension [51], colds and stomach-ache, fever, malaria [50], cancers [52]

Alkaloids: tembetarineoblongine, magnoflorine, arborinine, nitidine, dihydronitidine, xanthoxoline, 1-Hydroxy-3-methoxy-N-methyl-acridone, N-(4 hydroxyphenethyl)octacosanamide, N-(4-hydroxyphenethyl)hexacosanamide, N-(4-hydroxyphenethyl)decanamide, N-vanilloyltyramine, and N-[O-docosanoylvanilloyl]tyramine, flavonoid: hesperidin [53–56]

Antiplasmodial :bark [55]; Antifeedant: xanthoxoline and 1-hydroxy-3-methoxy-N-methyl-acridone, arborinine, tembetarine and magnoflorine against Spodoptera frugiperda, S. littoralis and S. frugiperda [54]; Low cytotoxicity: seeds extract towards leukemia CCRF-CEM and CEM/ADR5000 cells lines and pancreatic cancer MiaPaCa-2 cell line [52]; Antitumor: nitidine chloride and 6-methoxy-5,6-dihydronitidine [57]

Myrianthus arboreus P.Beauv. (Moraceae) 55499/HNC; Bangangté

Bark, leaves (bark: 7.68 %; leaves: 10.37 %)

Dysentery, diarrhea, vomiting, analgesic, antipyretic, heart troubles, pregnancy complications, dysmenorrheal, incipient hernia, boils, toothache, bronchitis, sore throat [58]; headaches, swellings and tumours, diabetes [40]; stomach disorders [59].

Aqueous and methanol extracts: alkaloids, flavonoid, tannins Cyanogenic glycosides, Phytic acid, saponin, anthocyanin, glycoside, carotenoid, oxalate [58, 60].

Antibacterial: against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli oxalate [58]; antiplasmodial: against Anopheles gambiae [61].

Nauclea pobeguinii (Pobég. ex Pellegr.) Merr. ex E.M.A. (Rubiaceae) 32597/HNC; Mbouda

Bark, leaves, roots (bark: 6.55 %; leaves: 6.31 %)

Abortive, stomach ache, infectious diseases [62]; jaundice [63]; fever, diarrhoea, worm, malaria [64].

Nauclefine 1 and 2, strictosamide, carboxystrictosidine, methylangustoline, 3-O-β-D-fucosyl-quinovic-acid, 3-keto-quinovic-acid [62]; angustoline [65].

Antiplasmodial: extract and 3-O-β-fucosylquinovic acid and 3-ketoquinovic acid against Plasmodium falciparum [64].

Tragia benthamii Bak. (Euphorbiaceae) 23329/SRF Cam; Mbouda

Whole plant (whole plant: 5.18 %)

Sores, swollen armpit, abortifacient, child delivery promoter [66].

Tannins, saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, flavonoids [66].

Antiplasmodial: against Plasmodium berghei [66].

  1. *(HNC): Cameroon National Herbarium; (SRFC): Société des Réserves Forestières du Cameroun