Natural products potential of the genus Aptenia

Abstract

Plants are considered rich attractive sources for producing new bioactive compounds which exhibit a wide range of pharmacological activities. Family Aizoaceae is considered to be one of the South Africa largest succulent plant families, and it consists of four subfamilies named Sesuvioideae, Aizooideae, Ruschioideae, and Mesembryanthemoideae. Genus Aptenia consists of four species; A. cordifolia, A. geniculiflora, A. haeckeliana, and A. lancifolia, Besides Aptenia species are rich sources of natural metabolites from diverse chemical classes including oxyneolignans, flavonoids, sterols, lignans, amides and alkaloids with powerful anti-inflammatory activity. This review covers the literature until December 2018, providing a complete investigation of different isolated compounds from genus Aptenia with their available biological activities.

Comparative phytochemical and biological study for Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum and Aptenia cordifolia plants growing in Egypt

“…The Aizoaceae is the largest succulent plant family in the world [2]. The Family Aizoaceae (Figmarigold family or Ice plant family) comprises 143 genera and about 2300 species [3] distributed mostly in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa and few of them are distributed in Asia, Australia and the central Pacific regions. Majority of the species (96%) are endemic to southern Africa [4].…”

“…It is native to South Africa and naturalized in Australia, it contains 4 species cultivated as an ornamental plant in different regions of the world. Literature review of Aptenia cordifolia, reported that the leaf extract contains sterols, oxyneolignans, lignans and amides [3]. But no reports were found about its biological activity.…”