Reflecting on the interesting phytopharmacology of the cosmopolitan Dodonaea genus: past, present and future

Abstract

The genus Dodonaea is thought to have originated from Australia but it is now found worldwide and in places where the plants occur, they hold ethnobotanical significance. This has prompted phytochemical and pharmacological studies. To date, secondary metabolite profiling has particularly focused on Dodonaea viscosa and such studies have shown that flavonoids and terpenoids are the dominant chemical constituents of this taxon. These phytochemicals display a variety of bioactivities such as antitumor, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulating properties that have been shown mainly in in vitro assays, with a few instances using in vivo animal models. The review aims to provide a systematic and comprehensive overview of Dodonaea metabolites and pharmacological studies presented in the past decade. Several databases (Web of Science, Goolge and Scopus) were used to compile information presented in this review. A bibliometric analysis of past and present data was conducted via Scopus and this revealed a rising trend in the presence of research related to phytochemistry and pharmacological investigations in the genus. Recent studies show this species as a source of new chemical entities, some of these from the clerodane diterpenoid, and, labdane diterpenoids groups. A set of triterpenoids, now called vistriterpenoids was recently isolated from D. viscosa . This review largely focuses on the secondary metabolites but Dodonaea species are also known to be rich in primary metabolites which are also thought to impart pharmacological actions. An increasing body of knowledge is likely to lead to commercialization of extracts of Dodonaea species in the natural products industry. However, future studies need to focus on better chemical characterization of extracts and increasing our knowledge on the safety and toxicity profiles of these extracts using a diverse range of phytochemical and pharmacological tools.

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