Medicinal values of aquatic plant genus Nymphoides grown in Asia: A review

Abstract

Nymphoides is an aquatic genus consisting about 50 species, of which few were accepted as traditional medicinal plants in Asia. The literature review revealed that Nymphoides species are widely used in Ayurvedic medicine as a popular drug, i.e. Tagara. They are also utilized by the traditional local healers of different Asian countries to treat various diseases, like convulsion, jaundice, fever, headache, etc. According to the in vivo and in vitro pharmacological studies, Nymphoides species have been claimed to possess major biological activities like anticonvulsant, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, cytotoxic, antitumor, etc. Biochemical profiling of different aquatic plants of this genus revealed the presence of some important phytochemicals as polyphenolic component, flavonoids, triterpenes, carbohydrates, glycosides, etc. Several valuable bioactive compounds including ephedrine, coumarin, secoiridoid glucosides, methyl quercetin, ferulic acid, foliamenthoic acid, etc. were also known to be isolated and identified from different Nymphoides species. The aim of this review is to analyze the published report based on the medicinal values of different Asian Nymphoides species, to provide the updated information about the ethnomedicinal, pharmacological as well as the phytochemical properties for the first time.

Keywords

• nymphoides
• aquatic
• ayurvedic medicine
• phytochemicals