Trichosanthes, a genus of family Cucurbitaceae, is an annual or perennial herb distributed in tropical Asia and Australia. Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) is known by a common name of parwal and is cultivated mainly as a vegetable. Juice of leaves of T. dioica is used as tonic, febrifuge, in edema, alopecia, and in subacute cases of enlargement of liver. In Charaka Samhita, leaves and fruits find mention for treating alcoholism and jaundice. A lot of pharmacological work has been scientifically carried out on various parts of T. dioica, but some other traditionally important therapeutical uses are also remaining to proof till now scientifically. According to Ayurveda, leaves of the plant are used as antipyretic, diuretic, cardiotonic, laxative, antiulcer, etc. The various chemical constituents present in T. dioica are vitamin A, vitamin C, tannins, saponins, alkaloids, mixture of noval peptides, proteins tetra and pentacyclic triterpenes, etc.

Background: Medicinal plants have been found beneficial in the control and therapy of many ailments as they contain bioactive compounds, and many of them are used as precursors in the biosynthesis of natural medicines. Diuretics are used as a primary treatment in patients with edema associated with liver cirrhosis and kidney diseases, hyperkalemia, hypertension, heart failure, or renal failure. Furthermore, they are also used to increase the excretion of sodium and reduce blood volume. Due to various adverse events associated with synthetic diuretics, there is a need to investigate alternate plant-based bioactive components that have effective diuretic activity with minimal side effects. Objective: This review compiled the reported bioactive compounds from different plant sources along with their mechanisms of diuretic activity. Methods: Different sources were used to collect information regarding herbal plants with therapeutic value as diuretics. These included published peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly articles from StatPearls, and search engines like Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Springer, ScienceDirect, Wiley, etc. Results: In this review, it was found that flavonoids like rutin, acacetin, naringenin, etc. showed significant diuretic activity in experimental models by various mechanisms, but mostly by blocking the sodium-potassium-chloride co-transporter, while some bioactive compounds showed diuretic actions via other mechanisms as well. Conclusion: Research on clinical trials of these isolated bioactive compounds needs to be further conducted. Thus, this review provides an understanding of the potential diuretic bioactive compounds of plants for further research and pharmaceutical applications.