Phytomedicine Plus (May 2022)
The ethno-medicinal and pharmaceutical attributes of Bryophytes: A review
Abstract
Background: There are over 24,000 species of bryophytes on the planet, which is a heterogeneous group of terrestrial plants. Various aboriginal groups around the world use bryophytes as a remedy against a number of ailments. Bryophytes have a huge commercial potential due to their promising biological activities. Methods: All popular search engines such as Google scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect and Scopus were used to retrieve the relevant literature using various search strings related to the topic. Results: It has been demonstrated that bryophytes contain a number of potentially useful natural products, such as lipids, phenylpropanoids, polysaccharides, quinones, rare amino acids, terpenoids, and many other specialized compounds. There have been reports of compounds isolated from bryophytes showing antimicrobial, antiviral, cytotoxic, neuroprotective, nematocidal and insecticidal effects. Besides, they have demonstrated their effects on smooth and non-striated muscles and weight loss, as plant growth regulators and allelopathic. In addition to causing allergies and skin reactions, bryophytes were also reported to cause contact dermatitis. Bryophytes display a plethora of medicinal properties and may be used to treat hepatic disorders, skin diseases, cardiovascular diseases, fever and wound. The phytochemicals isolated from them can be used to produce a range of novel pharmacologically active compounds. Conclusions: Future drug development programs will take advantage of phytochemical data-mining methods that encompass identification, quantification, evaluation, conformational analysis, clinical assessment, monitoring, bioactivity analysis, and designing new drugs based on these unique bioactive chemicals found in bryophytes. Taking all of these factors into account, bryophytes are promising sources of herbal remedies and ingredients for a variety of products.
