Pharmacological Values and Phytochemical Properties of Devil’s Cotton (Ulatkambal) - A Review

Abstract

Devil’s cotton (Ulatkambal) is a genus in the family Malvaceae, with one or two species from Asia and Australia. Literature review revealed that Abroma augusta (Devil’s cotton) is widely used in Ayurvedic medicine as a popular drug. Devil’s cotton has been claimed to possess major biological activities like anti-diabetic, analgesic, anti-inflamatory, thrombolytic, antioxidant, hypolipidemic etc. They are also utilized by the traditional local healers of different Asian countries to treat various diseases like diabetes mellitus, as uterine tonic in emmerogogue, dysmenorrhea, amenorrhoea, sterility and other menstrual disorders, rheumatic pains of joints and headache with sinusitis. Biochemical profiling of different parts of the plant demonstrated the presence of some important phytochemicals like alkaloids, abromin, sterol, friedelin, abromasterol, taroxerylacetate, taraxeral and β-sitosterol. The aim of this review was to analyze the published report based on the medicinal values of Devil’s cotton species as well to provide the updated information about the ethnomedicinal, pharmacological as well as the phytochemical properties.
 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 22(1): 109-116, 2019

Protective Action of Roots of Abroma Augusta in Gastric Ulcer Prevention Induced by Ethanol in Rats

“…This makes it valuable in treating conditions like amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, and other menstrual disorders. [15] While there is no existing research on the plant's anti-ulcer effects, this study aimed to establish the pharmacological foundation supporting its traditional use in treating gastric ulcers. Based on this, an attempt has been made to investigate the protective action of roots of A. augusta in gastric ulcer prevention induced by ethanol in rats with their phytoconstituents.…”

Methanolic Bark Extract of Abroma augusta (L.) Induces Apoptosis in EAC Cells through Altered Expression of Apoptosis Regulatory Genes

“…augusta (L.) (family: Sterculiaceae or Malvaceae in some classifications) is commonly known as Ulatkambal in Bengali and Hindi, and Devil's cotton in English. It is an evergreen small shrub with a long history of medicinal uses and mostly found in tropical Asia, South Eastern Africa, and Australia [15]. In India, the mother tincture of A. augusta is widely used in homeopathic medicine to treat uterine disorders and diabetes mellitus [16,17].…”

The Morphological and Anatomical Studies of The Aerial Parts of Abroma augusta L. from Semarang

“…http://journal.uinsgd.ac.id/index.php/biodjati Khasanah & Kusumarini 2020; Chowdhury et al, 2019). Many studies have reported about biological activities of this plant such as anti-diabetic (Ahmad et al, 2020;Khanra et al, 2015), anti-inflammatory (Das et al, 2012;Latief et al, 2020), analgesic, antioxidant, thrombolytic, and hypolipidemic activities (Chowdhury et al, 2019). According to Saikot et al (2012), the acetone extract of its leaves also has antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity.…”

“…Some phytochemicals, such as steroids, triterpenes, flavonoids, alkaloids, abromines, sterols, friedelin, abromasterol, taroxerylacetate, taraxerol, β-sitosterol, etc. are related to its biological activities and found and distributed in almost all body parts of the plant (Chowdhury et al, 2019;Gupta et al, 2011). Hence, the barks, leaves, and roots of A. augusta L. can be used in disease/ disorder treatment (Chowdhury et al, 2019).…”

“…are related to its biological activities and found and distributed in almost all body parts of the plant (Chowdhury et al, 2019;Gupta et al, 2011). Hence, the barks, leaves, and roots of A. augusta L. can be used in disease/ disorder treatment (Chowdhury et al, 2019). According to Miah et al (2020), some phytochemicals such as alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids, reducing sugars, and glycosides have been found in the methanolic extract of the A. augusta L. bark showing the highest antioxidant capacity.…”