Caesalpinia ferrea C. Mart. (Fabaceae) Phytochemistry, Ethnobotany, and Bioactivities: A Review

Abstract

Caesalpinia ferrea C. Mart., popularly known as “Jucá” or “Pau-ferro”, belongs to the Fabaceae family, and is classified as a native and endemic species in Brazil. Numerous studies that portray its ethnobotany, chemical composition, and biological activities exist in the literature. The present study aimed to systematically review publications addressing the botanical aspects, uses in popular medicine, phytochemical composition, and bioactivities of C. ferrea. The searches focused on publications from 2015 to March 2020 using the Scopus, Periódicos Capes, PubMed, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect databases. The leaves, fruits, seeds, and bark from C. ferrea are used in popular medicine to treat disorders affecting several systems, including the circulatory, immune, cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, genitourinary, musculoskeletal, and conjunctive systems. The most commonly found chemical classes in phytochemical studies are flavonoids, polyphenols, terpenoids, tannins, saponins, steroids, and other phenolic compounds. The biological properties of the extracts and isolated compounds of C. ferrea most cited in the literature were antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory, and healing potential. However, further studies are still needed to clarify a link between its traditional uses, the active compounds, and the reported pharmacological activities, as well as detailed research to determine the toxicological profile of C. ferrea.

Antifungal Combination of Ethyl Acetate Extract of Poincianella pluviosa (DC.) L. P. Queiros Stem Bark With Amphotericin B in Cryptococcus neoformans

“…The antifungal potential of Poincianella ( Caesalpinia ) species has been previously described. Different parts of Caesalpinia sappan ( Niranjan Reddy et al, 2003 ), Caesalpinia pyramidalis ( Cruz et al, 2007 ), Caesalpinia bonducella ( Shukla et al, 2011 ), Caesalpinia ferrea Martius ( Macêdo et al, 2020 ), and Caesalpinia pulcherrima ( de Melo et al, 2020 ) showed antifungal effect in vitro against planktonic cells of several fungal species, which can cause infections in humans such as Trichophyton rubrum , Candida guilliermondii , Candida albicans , Candida parapsilosis , and Fonsecaea pedrosoi . Among these plant species, the inhibitory activity of only two species was evaluated on growth of planktonic cells of C. neoformans .…”

Anti-Inflammatory Effect Fraction of Bletilla striata and Its Protective Effect on LPS-Induced Acute Lung Injury

“…Based on these models, medicinal plants have been reported to possess numerous secondary metabolites with potent anti-inflammation effects and demonstrated therapeutic promises for inflammation-related diseases [21]. Therefore, medicinal plants are important resources of anti-inflammatory compounds [22]. And our previous studies confirmed that the ethanol extract of Bletilla striata has the preventive and therapeutic effect on silicainduced pulmonary fibrosis in rats [15].…”

(E)-9-Octadecenoic Acid Ethyl Ester Derived from Lotus Seedpod Ameliorates Inflammatory Responses by Regulating MAPKs and NF-κB Signalling Pathways in LPS-Induced RAW264.7 Macrophages

“…e uncontrolled inflammatory responses are closely associated with the development of inflammatory diseases. Hence, antiinflammatory compounds with the ability to inhibit the expression of inflammatory proteins and genes and the production of proinflammatory markers are an efficient way to control inflammatory diseases [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”